Foreign sanctions pressure exposes digital dependencies

The debate on digital sovereignty is taking on an increasingly tangible geopolitical dimension. In September, PublicSpaces, together with dozens of other organisations, called on the Dutch House of Representatives and the government to better protect European organisations against foreign sanctions pressure. The call followed US sanctions against the Italian internet provider Autistici/Inventati (A/I), which had consequences for services including domain names, hosting and payment processing.

No EU Anti-Coercion Instrument
The Dutch government has since responded to parliamentary questions on the issue. It acknowledges that dependence on US digital services can make European organisations vulnerable to US measures and explicitly links this to managing risky strategic dependencies, digital open strategic autonomy and cloud sovereignty. For the time being, however, the government is primarily focusing on dialogue, existing strategic autonomy programmes and preventing overcompliance. The EU Anti-Coercion Instrument is not currently being deployed.

Broader lesson
The broader lesson is relevant to all organisations: digital sovereignty is not only about where data is stored, but also about having genuine control over and ensuring the continuity of essential digital infrastructure. This includes cloud services, hosting, domain names, identity services and other components whose availability may depend partly on a foreign jurisdiction. This underlines the importance of interoperability, viable alternatives and reducing strategic dependencies.

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