Financial Times: Europe falling behind US in digital race

Europe is “losing the internet,” according to Miguel De Bruycker, the head of Belgium’s cybersecurity agency, who cautioned that the continent is far behind the US in digital infrastructure. Speaking to the Financial Times, De Bruycker painted a bleak picture of European data sovereignty, highlighting that US tech companies dominate cloud services and digital infrastructure. “We’ve lost the whole cloud. We have lost the internet, let’s be honest,” he said. 

De Bruycker stressed that Europe’s cyber defences are heavily reliant on private firms, most of them American. While he stopped short of calling this an “enormous security problem,” he warned that EU nations are missing out on cutting-edge technologies essential for cybersecurity, including cloud computing and artificial intelligence. These tools, he argued, are critical to defend European countries against sophisticated cyber attacks.

The Belgian official criticized regulatory approaches like the EU’s AI Act for stifling innovation. “Legislation such as the EU’s AI Act is blocking innovation,” he said, urging governments to support private initiatives that could scale European digital capabilities. Drawing parallels with the Airbus project, De Bruycker suggested a collaborative European effort to strengthen the continent’s technological sovereignty. Companies such as France’s OVHcloud and Germany’s Schwarz Digital already provide crucial infrastructure, but more coordinated action is needed, he argued.

Calls to reduce dependency on US tech giants have been growing in EU circles, especially as geopolitical tensions heighten. De Bruycker observed that much of this debate is abstract, saying, “I think on an EU level we should clearly identify what sovereignty means to us in the digital domain.” Rather than focusing on limiting US “hyperscalers,” he suggested that Europe should concentrate on building its own capabilities.

Belgium’s heightened vulnerability to cyber threats underscores the urgency. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hybrid attacks—including cyber assaults and drone incursions—have targeted the country. Last year, Belgium experienced five waves of DDoS attacks affecting businesses and government agencies, often attributed to “Russian hacktivists.” According to De Bruycker, these attacks are typically disruptive rather than destructive. “It’s temporary, it’s not stealing any information. It’s really disturbing the normal functioning of the website or the portal,” he said.

Despite these challenges, European reliance on US tech has had benefits. American hyperscalers were instrumental in salvaging data from Russian cyber attacks, and De Bruycker expressed confidence in ongoing collaboration with US companies to counter malicious actors, even amid shifting political alliances in Washington.

By Jeyhun Aghazada