Fear that critical IT systems could suddenly be shut down is driving European countries to strengthen their digital capabilities. Denmark is leading the development with pilot projects for open source, while the municipality of Copenhagen maps alternatives to Silicon Valley giants.

— We have been in a Sleeping Beauty slumber in Europe for too long, says Denmark’s digitalization minister Caroline Stage Olsen.

The statement comes amid a growing European debate about digital sovereignty, where Denmark has taken a leading role through concrete initiatives at both national and municipal levels.

The municipality of Copenhagen is now driving an ambitious effort to map alternatives to today’s dominant IT suppliers. Henrik Appel Esbensen, who leads the municipality’s internal audit, draws parallels to the energy sector:

— For gas and electricity we have alternative suppliers. Now we want to see if we can also become as supply-secure for IT as we want to be.

He emphasizes that the focus is on supply security rather than specifically avoiding American solutions: “For us it’s important not necessarily to get rid of American tech specifically, but that the supply security to Copenhagen is good”.

Pilot project with open source

Denmark’s digitalization ministry has started a pilot project exploring alternatives to Silicon Valley giants’ products, primarily through solutions based on open source. The initiative has gained renewed relevance following recent tensions between Denmark and the US regarding Greenland.

— We are dependent on products, services, software, hardware that come from countries outside Europe and that is a problem, states digitalization minister Caroline Stage Olsen.

Denmark is not alone in taking action. In Germany, the state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to replace Windows with Linux and seek domestic cloud providers. Meanwhile, Poland and the Baltic states are developing plans for large-scale AI data centers – a so-called “AI gigafactory” – to secure their own capacity for artificial intelligence.

— Estonia today uses the major American tech companies’ services, but we want to develop alternatives to secure our digital sovereignty, explains Estonia’s economy and industry minister Erkki Keldo to Swedish public television SVT.

“Must dare to invest”

The view on digital independence has undergone a dramatic change in a short time. Tech investor Johan Brenner from venture capital firm Creandum illustrates the shift:

— If you had asked the question a year ago, I would have just laughed at it. But now you don’t know, you might need to have a plan A and a plan B for European companies.

The path toward greater digital autonomy will be neither simple nor quick, according to Henrik Appel Esbensen in Copenhagen:

— I think it will take a long time. But it requires massive investments because there aren’t that many suppliers in the field right now. There’s no doubt that we must dare to invest in this in Europe.

Concern about what happens if critical IT systems are suddenly shut down or contracts are terminated has transformed digital sovereignty from an abstract discussion into a concrete security issue for European countries – a development that has accelerated markedly over the past year.