Brussels is moving to construct its own technological infrastructure, aiming to end reliance on foreign powers for critical digital services. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the European Technology Sovereignty Package on June 3, 2026, stating, “We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure.” This declaration, framed as protecting "our citizens" and "defending our interests," mirrors the exclusionary logic that underpins Europe's physical border regime.
The package, which includes the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), represents the clearest expression yet of a shift towards strategic autonomy. These measures, still navigating the EU policymaking process, aim to create a self-sufficient digital ecosystem. Yet, the continent's current dependence is stark: 92% of Western data resides on U.S.-owned infrastructure, and the EU relies on non-EU countries for over 80% of its digital products, services, and intellectual property, according to EU institutions and a January 2026 European Parliament resolution.
Digital Borders and Corporate Control
Cloud computing stands as a major battleground in this push for digital sovereignty. U.S. hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate roughly 70% of the European cloud-infrastructure market. European providers, whose share plummeted from 29% in 2017 to a stagnant 15% five years later, are now the focus of state-backed efforts to regain ground. The Data Act, which began to apply one year ago in September 2025, seeks to ease switching between data-processing providers, while the European Commission informed Amazon and Microsoft in June 2026 of its preliminary view to designate AWS and Azure as "gatekeepers" under the Digital Markets Act, citing their entrenched market positions and high switching costs.
CADA aims to triple the European Union’s data-center capacity within five to seven years, streamlining permitting and improving access to energy, land, water, and financing. It also introduces a common European framework for assessing cloud and AI sovereignty, allowing public authorities to prioritize EU-owned providers in procurement decisions. This framework includes four levels of sovereignty, with the highest demanding full transparency and control over the software supply chain, alongside freedom from third-country interference. Sebastián Muriel, Telefónica’s chief digital officer, challenged this approach in a May 23 article, arguing that merely hosting data on European soil is "clearly insufficient" if the parent company remains outside the EU, reducing sovereignty to "little more than a label stuck on a rental contract."
The Hypocrisy of Labour Shortages
Beyond cloud infrastructure, the package targets semiconductors, where Europe accounts for just under 10% of global production, and open-source software, intended to reduce dependence on proprietary systems. The Commission also acknowledges the massive energy demands of expanding data centers, seeking to integrate them into Europe’s energy system and coordinate growth with decarbonization goals. This focus on "green" digital expansion, however, often overlooks the climate crisis's disproportionate impact on the Global South, driving migration that Europe then criminalises.
A critical bottleneck in this digital ambition is the severe shortage of skilled workers. Sixty percent of EU companies report difficulties hiring qualified personnel in fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and clean technologies. Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of the Commission, stated, “Europe must not be content to participate in this transformation; it must lead it.” This demand for leadership and skilled labour stands in stark contrast to the EU's increasingly restrictive border policies, which deny entry and opportunity to countless individuals seeking safety and work, many of whom possess valuable skills. Europe's investment in research and development, at 2.22% of GDP, lags 34% behind the combined investment of the United States and China, with only four of the world’s 50 largest technology companies being European, as noted by Mario Draghi. The highest-ranked European AI model stood in 89th place in Artificial Analysis’s rankings in July 2026, with all higher models originating from the U.S. or China. Draghi warned that "inaction threatens not only our competitiveness, but also our sovereignty," highlighting that nearly 30% of European-created unicorns have moved their headquarters abroad. This pursuit of "sovereignty" through technological self-reliance, while simultaneously closing borders to the very people who could contribute to its development, exposes the deep-seated contradictions of Fortress Europe.
Public procurement is being leveraged, with the European Commission awarding contracts worth up to €180 million in April 2026 for sovereign cloud services for EU institutions. This move aims to establish the public sector as an anchor customer for European providers. Meanwhile, a May 2026 GSMA Intelligence study indicates Europe will need €475 billion in mobile network investment by 2035 to complete its 5G rollout, facing a €205 billion investment gap under current conditions. Barbara Moens, writing in the Financial Times in late May, described Europe's shift towards fostering its own tech alternatives to "reclaim its place in the global race for geoeconomic power." This race for power, however, is built on a foundation of exclusion, where capital flows freely but human beings are met with digital and physical walls.