Digital dependency: 3 factors in a predicted surge?
Europe's dependence on U.S. digital services costs €264 billion a year and undermines its sovereignty. With extraterritorial legal influence, industrial backwardness, and economic short-termism, building sustainable digital autonomy requires a leap of faith.
According to a study by Asterès, carried out for Cigref in April 2025, Europe's dependence on American companies in the cloud and professional software sector costs 264 billion euros every year. "If, in 2035, the European Union were able to produce 15% of the cloud services it currently buys from the United States, the result would be 463,000 additional jobs in the European Union. Rapidly rising prices for cloud services could lead in 10 years to an improvement in the US current account balance of 421 billion euros (1).
"Although some are already pointing to the methodological limitations of this study, based in part on an extrapolation of spending on cloud and software services in France, based on data from interviews with just six information systems departments of major French companies, it should be pointed out that the latter have the advantage of representing all of the country's economic sectors, and that this study provides an estimate of this dependence, which funds almost 2 million jobs in the United States.
Beyond the economic aspects, these figures raise questions about the Old Continent's ability to build genuine digital sovereignty.
This finding comes as no surprise to those in the field of data protection
Although alarming, this finding is not unexpected. Indeed, in 2016, Europe framed a set of principles to be respected by member states and countries targeting Europeans through the extraterritoriality of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The United States had already exploited the extraterritoriality of its legislation to monitor and collect data on a global scale.
Notably, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and its amendment FISA 702, as well as the Patriot Act adopted after the 11 September 2001 attacks, gave US agencies access to the electronic communications and data of individuals, including foreign citizens and companies. These laws grant American authorities extensive investigative powers, justified by security concerns, but frequently criticised for their implications for privacy and state sovereignty.
Many companies, particularly those with international operations, have had to adapt their practices to comply with US requirements, despite the fact that the GDPR established this strengthened data protection framework in Europe long before. These right-to-privacy issues have also highlighted the impact on our technological sovereignty.
From cloud to sovereignty: the hidden stakes of data management
Today, Europe is dominated by a large number of American services. We are only just becoming aware of this situation and its impact on our strategic autonomy and, more broadly, our sovereignty. We live in a market economy where most of the information systems we rely on are controlled by GAFAM.
Office 365 is the collaborative solution chosen by the European Commission itself, and Microsoft is consolidating its hegemony in European companies and organisations year on year. In 2023, Observatoire Intranet et Communication Digitale ranked Office 365 first among office suites, with 79% of companies using it.
But it doesn't stop there. We also live in a France that has allowed Microsoft Azure to host all its citizens' health data. We allow this to happen, prioritising ease of use over creating or selecting our own solutions. The result is a twenty-year delay and a rude awakening.
What can we do for our children's future? We must launch an initiative to rebuild a situation that currently highlights issues of privacy, economic intelligence and sovereignty.
An announced 'degafamisation'?
Today, it is difficult for a large number of players stuck in a short-term vision to conceive of a 'degaussing' strategy. For decision-makers, such a strategy would mean allocating operating budgets to investment, whereas ten years ago they did the opposite. To make matters worse, such a strategy would lead to a technological setback, mainly due to 'change' and the adoption of alternative solutions by European users.
Put simply, nothing will change as long as our vision is clouded by short-term goals of productivity and results. But what if our ties were cut? What if all the services we use were cut off overnight in a different geopolitical context? Life often boils down to the same dilemma: should we act or suffer? Do we really have a choice?
Some companies and organisations are already adopting European or open-source solutions to replace GAFAM services. For cloud hosting, alternatives such as Scaleway or OVHcloud are favoured, while tools such as ProtonMail or Nextcloud are replacing messaging services and collaborative suites.
Although this approach is motivated by factors such as digital sovereignty, data protection and reducing risks linked to foreign interference, it remains at the margins. Are we really ready for this? No, we're not. This is why we need to build our digital autonomy. This will take time. But how long will it take us to realise that our strategic autonomy in digital matters requires us to take a strong stand and shake up our habits? How long will it take us to stop taking a short-term view in order to protect our society from the globalised economy? The final question is undoubtedly the most pressing: how much longer are we going to allow ourselves to be monitored?
Alex Türk used to say that, in a democracy, there are two fundamental requirements: transparency on the part of the state, and opacity on the part of the citizen. The world's major powers monitor the web in the name of security. However, Snowden suggested that an underlying objective is economic domination when he referred to mass surveillance. A third requirement may also be the opacity of our companies with regard to foreign powers.
Sovereignty is not synonymous with autarky; it is synonymous with autonomy. It's about retaining our ability to choose and decide. Hopefully, the current upsurge will help us build our autonomy. To accelerate the emergence of European champions, we need strong commitment and support from Europe. This could begin with the validation of the implementation of the EUCS, which would entail the integration of clear criteria for immunity to non-European law at the highest level, in addition to technical and operational safety rules. We must stop tolerating the situation and take action to develop.
(1) https://www.cigref.fr/la-dependance-technologique-aux-softwares-cloud-services-americains-une-estimation-des-consequences-economiques-en-europe
An article broadcast on Programmez
