WIREDGOV

For Europe, technology dependence is a strategic liability. The European Commission’s Tech Sovereignty Package offers solutions, but can it hold its resolve?

On 3 June, the European Commission presented its European Technological Sovereignty Package, a highly anticipated set of measures billed as a generational effort to address Europe’s reliance on foreign technology. The package answers the 2024 Draghi Report which called for a reduction in foreign dependence and increased competitiveness to achieve European prosperity and security in a digital age.

The Commission’s tech sovereignty package consists of four instruments: two pieces of legislation – the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA) and the Chips Act 2.0 – and two strategic documents, the Open Source Strategy and Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy. Altogether, an ambitious set of proposals.

If enacted, the package will reshape how Europe builds, buys and trusts its digital infrastructure. How far it goes will be decided in the negotiations ahead, at the European Parliament and among member states. Drawing on RUSI’s ongoing research on Cloud Sovereignty, this article focuses on the CADA: its aims, priorities and methods, and the fault lines likely to emerge as it is debated in Brussels.

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