Europa / Europe and the EU + EEA

The title doesn't really represent the content of the article very well if you ask me:

After January brought a warning from EU officials that decades of reliance on U.S. firms could be used as a tool of coercion by the White House, POLITICO surveyed the 27 EU governments to ask how they are handling their relationship with American tech.

The eight countries that responded by the publication deadline were Germany, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg.

“In the short to medium term, a full replacement of foreign digital services is neither realistic nor necessary,” a spokesperson for Germany’s digital minister said, even as they acknowledged a “clear picture of critical dependencies.”

Finland revealing it recently gamed out the scenario of a U.S. tech “kill switch” to help it prepare.

According to Jarkko Levasma, government chief information officer at the Finnish Ministry of Finance, “most of the options available are realistically possible on [the] medium to long term.”

“Access to source code reduces dependence on third-country providers, reduces vendor lock-in, keeps value and investment within Europe,” said center-right Finnish member of the European Parliament Aura Salla. “We need to cut our dependencies with hyperscalers as soon as possible.”

In Estonia, the barrage of cyberattacks from Russia has helped it prepare for “literally whatever situation,” Digital Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta said. Estonia has forged a level of digital resilience that is widely praised.

When it comes to where to go from here, “We are not looking for U.S. company dependencies but we are looking for any critical dependencies,” she said, noting that Estonia considers the threat of submarine internet cables being cut to be far more real than a U.S. tech shutdown.

Latvia — one of the EU’s frontline states bordering Russia — warned that sidelining U.S. tech would be an act of self-sabotage. “There’s only a couple of companies in the European Union that are at the level of U.S. companies,” Economy Minister Viktors Valainis said in an interview.

“Our threats are Russian and Belarusian — the threats are coming from those countries,” he said. “U.S. today, tomorrow, and after tomorrow will be the only and first partner for our security, and that’s not only for Latvia but for Europe.”

“A full technological ‘decoupling’ from the United States is neither a realistic objective nor one that would serve Europe’s broader strategic interests,” said Lithuania’s economy minister, Edvinas Grikšas.

France has banned officials from using U.S. video tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, shifting activity to French platform Visio.

Helsinki “has recently assessed” the possibility of a U.S. tech shutdown to make sure it’s prepared, Levasma added. Although “highly exceptional,” they concluded the impact “would be wide-ranging” — including “on the U.S. economy itself.”

“Like France, the Dutch government is researching autonomous communication tools for chats and video conferencing,” said outgoing State Secretary Eddie van Marum.

Van Marum cited the trials of the French-developed platform Visio and a German alternative from Nextcloud, both of which are open-source. The German government is trying the openDesk platform, a solution the Hague-based International Criminal Court also turned to after ditching Microsoft over fears that U.S. sanctions could freeze its work.

All emphasis mine, all quotes text taken from the article but rearranged to make it easier to follow my pov.

1. The article says Belgium, Ireland and Luxembourg replied to their questions, but they aren't mentioned anywhere else in the article.

2. Latvia believes we need the US for security , but also believes there are European alternatives that are equal in quality, which I read as them believing decoupling from US Tech is realistic (unlike the title suggests).

3. France and the Netherlands did not reply to Politico questions, but are mentioned in the article and also believe the opposite of what the title insinuaties. Denmark also didn't repond to the questions, and is also mentioned, they do not mention whether they specifically consider it realistic but mention they believe it will have a very large impact on the economy.

4. The only two (!) countries that agree with the title according the text are Germany (except the state Schleswig-Holstein) and Lithuania. Denmark, according to the text, is also skeptical of the feasibility of digital autonomy but because of it's impact on the economy and not because it is not realistic.