EuroStack: Europe’s bid to rebuild its digital backbone
On 24 September 2024, in the European Parliament in Brussels, a coalition of European technology leaders, entrepreneurs, and policy experts publicly launched EuroStack. The initiative calls for a coordinated European effort to strengthen digital sovereignty by building and adopting more European digital infrastructure—spanning connectivity, cloud computing, data services, and artificial intelligence (AI). The timing was deliberate: EuroStack was positioned as input for the 2025–2029 European Commission mandate, when questions of resilience, competitiveness, and technological dependence were already high on the political and economic agenda.
At its core, EuroStack addresses a simple but pressing question: how can Europe reduce its structural dependence on non-European digital technologies without closing itself off from global markets?
From digital sovereignty to strategic necessity
Digital sovereignty has long been part of European policy language, often linked to data protection, privacy, and regulation. Over the past few years, however, it has taken on a more strategic meaning. Cloud services, data platforms, and AI systems are no longer just IT tools; they underpin industrial productivity, public services, and national security.
Research from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) highlights the scale of the challenge, noting that more than 80% of Europe’s digital infrastructure and technologies are imported, primarily from the United States and, increasingly, China. This level of dependence, CEPS argues, creates systemic risks for Europe’s economy and limits its ability to shape its own digital future.
What EuroStack is — and what it deliberately avoids
EuroStack presents itself as an industrial and market initiative, rather than a regulatory programme. According to its founders, it does not advocate technological isolation or a break with global suppliers. Instead, it argues for credible European alternatives across the digital value chain, so that European organisations have meaningful choice.
This distinction matters. EuroStack’s language is explicit: sovereignty does not mean exclusion, but capacity—the ability to build, deploy, and operate essential digital systems in Europe, under European rules, with European suppliers playing a central role. The initiative positions itself as complementary to existing EU regulation, not as a replacement.
Since its public launch in 2024, EuroStack has evolved quickly. In early 2025, supporters published a detailed pitch document outlining the concept of a European “stack” of interoperable technologies. This was followed by a white paper in April 2025 and, later that year, the formal establishment of the EuroStack Initiative Foundation e.V., giving the movement an organisational base.
The problem EuroStack wants to solve
EuroStack’s diagnosis is blunt: Europe has strong individual technology companies, research institutions, and open-source communities, but lacks scale, coordination, and demand-side pull. As a result, promising technologies often fail to grow into platforms that can compete globally or even dominate their home market.
Large non-European providers benefit from deep capital markets, integrated product portfolios, and early access to large domestic customers—often public-sector ones. European firms, by contrast, face fragmented markets, complex procurement rules, and limited opportunities to scale.
EuroStack frames this not as a failure of innovation, but as a market-structure problem. Without coordinated demand and long-term investment, Europe’s digital ecosystem remains dependent on external platforms, even where local alternatives exist.
The three pillars: Buy, Sell, and Fund European
To address this, EuroStack articulates its agenda around three mutually reinforcing pillars.
Buy European focuses on demand. The initiative argues that public authorities and large organisations should make more strategic use of procurement to support European digital suppliers, provided they meet performance, security, and cost requirements. The goal is not protectionism, but market creation—giving European companies reference customers and predictable demand.
Sell European addresses the supply side. EuroStack encourages European providers to work together more closely, offering integrated solutions rather than isolated components. For customers, this matters: buying a “stack” that works out of the box is often easier than assembling one from multiple niche suppliers.
Fund European confronts Europe’s long-standing financing gap. While early-stage funding is relatively accessible, scaling digital infrastructure requires patient capital and long-term commitment. EuroStack argues that without new funding models, Europe will continue to produce innovation without industrial follow-through.
Together, these pillars signal a shift from celebrating start-ups to building sustainable, competitive digital industries.
Procurement, politics, and the limits of “Buy European”
The most controversial element of EuroStack’s agenda is procurement. Public calls to “buy European” inevitably raise concerns about market openness, competition, and cost. Critics warn of inefficiency or retaliation in global trade.
EuroStack’s supporters counter that all major technology powers already use procurement strategically, whether explicitly or implicitly. In this view, Europe’s challenge is not to invent a new approach, but to acknowledge that digital infrastructure is now as strategic as energy or transport.
Media coverage reflects this tension. In May 2025, Le Monde reported on EuroStack’s warning that Europe risks becoming a “digital colony” if it fails to act, highlighting proposals to use public purchasing power and interoperability rules to strengthen European suppliers.
The practical test will be implementation. Procurement policies must remain transparent, competitive, and outcome-driven. European origin alone cannot compensate for poor performance. EuroStack’s credibility will depend on whether it can align industrial ambition with operational reality.
Interoperability: a quiet but critical lever
Beyond procurement, EuroStack places strong emphasis on interoperability—the ability of systems to work together and be replaced without excessive cost or disruption. This may be less visible than political slogans, but it is central to reducing dependency.
If organisations can move data and workloads more easily between providers, supplier concentration becomes less risky. Interoperability also strengthens competition, forcing providers to win customers on quality and service rather than lock-in.
This aligns with trends already visible across Europe, where organisations increasingly adopt hybrid and multi-provider strategies to maintain control.
A new institutional player: the Digital Commons EDIC
In December 2025, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy jointly launched the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (DC-EDIC) in The Hague. The initiative, announced under the EU’s framework for European Digital Infrastructure Consortia, explicitly positions digital sovereignty as a shared European objective.
The launch of DC-EDIC marks a notable shift from policy declarations to institutional action. Its stated aim is to support shared digital infrastructure and capabilities that serve European public and economic interests, moving beyond speeches and strategy documents.
For the EuroStack Initiative—a coalition of European digital businesses and experts focused on sovereignty—the DC-EDIC represents a potential institutional ally. On its website, EuroStack frames the consortium as an opportunity to align public coordination with market-driven innovation, provided the roles are clearly defined.
EuroStack’s position is cautious but constructive. The initiative argues that only business and private capital can ultimately shape a competitive European tech industry. At the same time, an institutional instrument such as DC-EDIC can play a valuable role if it adheres to strict principles of complementarity.
In practical terms, this means acting as a market enabler and infrastructure guardian—for example by supporting standards, shared assets, or cross-border coordination—while avoiding state-subsidised competition that could crowd out private European initiative. Even the name “Digital Commons”, EuroStack notes, carries a strong civil-society connotation, underlining the importance of clarity about purpose and governance.
Cutting through the complexity
EuroStack’s critics often point to its dense language and broad scope. The idea of a full “European digital stack” can sound abstract, particularly outside specialist circles. Stripped of jargon, however, the proposition is straightforward.
EuroStack argues that Europe needs:
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reliable digital infrastructure it can trust,
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suppliers that can operate at scale,
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and markets that reward long-term investment rather than short-term dependency.
The DC-EDIC, in turn, reflects growing recognition among governments that coordination matters—that fragmented national efforts are insufficient in a digital economy built on scale and networks.
Neither initiative offers a quick fix. Building digital capability takes time, capital, and political discipline. But together, they signal a shift from reactive regulation towards intentional capacity-building.
A capability-driven view of sovereignty
Ultimately, the value of EuroStack lies less in its slogans than in its framing. Digital sovereignty is presented not as a moral claim, but as a capability: the ability to understand, operate, and adapt critical digital systems as conditions change.
For European organisations, this translates into practical questions: Where does our data reside? How easily can we switch providers? Who controls the infrastructure we depend on?
EuroStack’s challenge to Europe is whether it is willing to treat digital infrastructure as foundational to economic resilience and competitiveness—and to align markets, institutions, and investment accordingly. The emergence of the DC-EDIC suggests that this conversation is moving, cautiously, from principle to practice.
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