Digitalisation has invaded our lives at all levels. There is no corner, personal or professional, that does not include a digital element. However, most of the technologies we use in our day-to-day lives come from outside European borders, mainly from the United States, such as Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, or Microsoft, followed by a long list of others. Indeed, technologically speaking, Europe has become a “colony of the United States”, as stated by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in La Vanguardia. For Letta, being a colony means that “we do not decide anything on many key issues”. In light of this reality, various groups and personalities have begun to suggest that perhaps we Europeans should seek and generate technological alternatives to avoid relying on third parties and forge ahead with our own competent technology.

Now the question is clear: are we willing to turn our technological ecosystem inside out—like a sock? This almost existential doubt gains even more strength with the rise of global geopolitical tensions, especially following Donald Trump's arrival at the White House. Without going any further, visits to the European Alternatives page have multiplied exponentially since Trump’s inauguration in January of this year. This demonstrates the unease and the beginning of a paradigm shift in Europe that untethers it, even if only a little, from the US. We are witnessing the awakening of the old West, which is beginning to look with suspicion at what its main partner of the last century is doing. These kinds of pro-European initiatives have never been a very widespread current of thought—we all know that Europe is a diverse and complex territory—but in recent years they have gained considerable momentum as an almost complete technological dependence on US and Chinese giants becomes increasingly possible.

Moreover, this desire to untether from the big American tech companies is by no means unfounded. The reason? The Trump administration has already begun to dismantle the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF), the mechanism promulgated by Joe Biden that formed the legal basis of the DPF and imposed safeguards limiting US intelligence agencies' access to European data. This aggressive move by Trump towards Europe leaves European organisations working with cloud providers across the Atlantic in a legal vacuum, as the fundamental basis for considering the US an adequate destination for EU personal data has vanished, and seeking alternatives could become a necessity. Especially if European companies wish to protect their data and prevent third parties—such as Alphabet, Meta, or Amazon—from selling or transferring it unilaterally.

In times when the discourse of fear is growing, it is worth remembering that sovereignty goes beyond defence capabilities, and that technology plays and will play a key role in the socio-economic development of our society. Remaining tied to foreign technological solutions that dictate where certain info is located and how it is accessed means that the societies of the Old Continent continue to have limited technological autonomy. Furthermore, they are also conditioned by how their technological providers handle any legislative changes that may occur.

On the other hand, Europe must focus its efforts on building real and viable layers of technological sovereignty and not settle for being the world's “regulatory watchdog”. For years, Europe has dedicated itself to regulating and rules-making for what others were doing, reaching limits that have short-circuited its own capacity for technological innovation. Europe cannot just be the most regulated market in the world, and in this line, the European chip project stands out, alongside the various artificial intelligence factories and the quantum industry that are beginning to awaken in this very ecosystem. Without going any further, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is a global reference and has been chosen to host one of the first seven AI factories to be launched in the EU. The European Commission also tasked the BSC with leading the scientific development of future European chips, suitable for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, automotive industries, and the Internet of Things, among other multiple applications.

In short, this race is about building fully European technological 'stacks', computing engines, and processing factories. And all of this, for what purpose? To move towards a distinctive European sovereignty, with concrete solutions that respond to the real needs of the economy and society, and allow Europe to enter the technological race of the 21st century.