Dutch Committee Digital Affairs on overreliance on Non-European Digital Infrastructures

On Thursday February 13, 2025, the committee Digital Affairs (commissie Digitale Zaken – DiZa) of the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) organized a roundtable meeting on the topic of digital sovereignty in government.

Overreliance on Non-European Digital Infrastructure

During this roundtable, it became clear that everyone is aware that cloud has become a vital infrastructure for the functioning of the Netherlands in general and for the Dutch government in particular. The fact that cloud services are largely managed by companies based in the United States makes the Netherlands (and also Europe) very dependent on a small number of very big non-European players, which is especially relevant in the current geopolitical climate.

Several speakers emphasized the importance of a Dutch or European approach to reduce the dependency on a few non-European providers.

Read more: Experts slaan alarm over digitale soevereiniteit (in Dutch – BinnenlandsBestuur)

Watch the roundtable discussion: Digitale soevereiniteit bij de Rijksoverheid | Debat Direct (in Dutch)

Argument Map with Pros and Cons of Non-European Cloud Providers

On February 5, 2025, Björn Hakansson (CoE-DSC) presented the Argumentenkaart (Dutch for Argument Map) at the Data Sharing Festival 2025 in The Hague. The Argumentenkaart is a neutral overview with all the pros and cons of working with non-European cloud services. This overview will help Members of the House of Representatives (but also other politicians, policy makers, opinion makers and ICT decision makers in private organisations) to form a position on this complicated issue.

Background Information on the Committee Digital Affairs:

The Digital Affairs Committee (commissie Digitale Zaken) helps members of the Dutch House of Representatives to gain more knowledge and understanding of the consequences of the digitization of society. Six themes have been defined for this purpose:

  1. Emerging and future technologies
  2. Digital citizenship and democracy
  3. Digital fundamental rights and data ethics
  4. Digital infrastructure and economy
  5. Online security and cybersecurity
  6. Digitizing government.

The committee regularly organizes roundtable discussions with experts on these topics. This helps the members of parliament in handling, for example, legislative proposals.

For more information about the Committee Digital Affairs, visit the website.

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