<\/span><\/h2>\nKnowledge will be decisive in determining whether Europe emerges as a strategic technology builder and trend-setter, or remains a rule-taker in a rapidly shifting global landscape.<\/p>\n
The window for action is narrow even on more long term actions. Decisions taken today on talent development, research priorities, standards and innovation mechanisms will shape Europe\u2019s economic competitiveness for decades to come, as well as its capacity to understand, influence and defend<\/strong> its values in an increasingly technology-mediated world.<\/p>\nRecommendations in this brief outline how Europe can strengthen knowledge capabilities at multiple levels: from establishing in-house technical expertise within governments and policy units to enhance state capacity for technically grounded decision-making, to mapping critical resilience gaps, and launching ambitious \u2018moonshot\u2019 initiatives that inspire a new generation of European technological talent and youth. These measures offer a pathway to translate national excellence into European-wide competitiveness, to become strategically indispensable in key technology domains such as cloud and Frontier AI, and to target resilience gaps across the European Tech Stack.<\/p>\n
The proposed method unfolds across three phases aimed at building Europe\u2019s technological sovereignty through knowledge capacity.<\/p>\n
![\"quotation](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quotation-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/span>Now<\/span><\/h3>\n\u2022 Embed tech talent into public institutions to build in\u2011house policy capacity<\/p>\n
\u2022 Strengthen tech diplomacy efforts, for example by incentivising national expert participation in standard-setting bodies and establishing a European Tech Diplomacy Unit to support values-based alignment across ISO, ETSI, IETF and GPAI.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Create a digital public infrastructure (DPI) knowledge repository (reference code, governance).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Promote the inclusive development of meaningful metrics to measure technological sovereignty and resilience, ensuring sufficient nuance (e.g. \u2018gradients of sovereignty\/resilience\u2019).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Develop a comprehensive \u2018sovereignty mapping\u2019, including risk assessments, scenario planning, foresight exercises and crisis testing, to identify supply-chain interdependencies (data, personnel, tech stack), critical choke points and strategic strengths.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Tomorrow<\/span><\/h3>\n\u2022 Fund R&D into exploring new AI model architectures.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Upskill SMEs to adopt a sovereign European Tech Stack.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Create public-private tandem fellowships to strengthen technological understanding within the public sector.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Launch a \u2018Tech Erasmus Programme\u2019 across sectors and Member States to foster a shared European tech identity, improve understanding between the public and private sectors and cultivate the next generation of European tech talent and change-makers.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Day After<\/span><\/h3>\n\u2022 Launch a flagship \u2018European Moonshot\u2019 or \u2018European Dream\u2019 initiative to attract and inspire next-generation tech talent and engage the wider public.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Institutionalise a foresight \u2018hedge radar\u2019 to monitor strategic gaps and anticipate future technological developments (e.g. quantum, energy, raw materials, microelectronics).<\/p>\n
<\/span>Act on Investment<\/span><\/h2>\nTo establish immediate technological resilience and address critical vulnerabilities, Europe must take decisive action fronts, beginning with EU-level demand aggregation and a targeted investment strategy focused on fast-track projects and the scale-up of a robust sovereign technology fund.<\/p>\n
Bundling public procurement across Member States can position governments as collective \u2018anchor customers\u2019 for European technology providers. This mechanism could be further strengthened through a \u2018Buy European Act\u2019 \u2013 a procurement framework that prioritises European solutions, drives innovation, rewards interoperability and measurable security performance through certified European products, and establishes coordinated, long-term investment mechanisms that support both operational excellence and closing of resilience gaps<\/strong>. An expanded European Sovereign Tech Fund could back critical open-source components, hardware and cybersecurity capabilities that underpin digital trustworthiness.<\/p>\nBuilding on these foundations, Europe could institutionalise longer-term mechanisms to sustain digital resilience and create enduring structures for innovation and investment in critical technologies. These efforts can be organised around three critical pillars: Institutionalising open-source funding within the EU\u2019s broader resilience strategy. Creating funding structures that attract combined public and private investment to accelerate European innovations to market \u2013 for example, through a high-risk deep-tech capital vehicle complemented by a private fund to bridge the financing gap that currently drives promising European ventures abroad. Creating dedicated marketplaces for digital public infrastructures that can serve as catalysts for widespread adoption and innovation across Europe.<\/p>\n
![\"quote](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quote-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/span>Now<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Fast\u2011track targeted investment in strategic projects and launch challenge-driven mechanisms (e.g. France\u2019s Interministerial Digital Directorate, Germany\u2019s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation SPRIN-D) to build minimum viable products that address operational needs and resilience gaps.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Scale-up a European Sovereign Tech Fund to support critical open-source, hardware and cybersecurity components that underpin digital trustworthiness.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Leverage existing sovereign cloud initiatives and national pilots to generate early demand signals for European technology solutions.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Tomorrow<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Introduce a \u2018Buy European Act\u2019 for critical digital infrastructures and services to create critical demand.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Establish long\u2011term public-private partnerships for sovereign digital public infrastructures (e.g. EU Citizen or Business Wallets) and reach mass adoption.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Create dedicated marketplaces for digital public infrastructures.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Pool innovation\u2011oriented public procurement and digital public infrastructure investments, including the development of \u2018families\u2019 of gigafactories.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Use AI Gigafactory funds to prioritise sovereign chip and cloud alternatives (e.g. SiPEARL, EUCLYD, Axelera, Arago, STX, Semi Dynamics).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Shift procurement practices from compliance-based checklists to resilience-driven outcomes, using 90-day pilot-to-scale cycles.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Advance initiatives that complete the EU single market and capital markets union.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Day After<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Institutionalise open-source funding as a core pillar of the EU\u2019s resilience strategy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Set up a high\u2011risk EU deep\u2011tech capital vehicle, complemented by a private European fund, and make European stock exchanges an attractive exit route for start-ups.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Act on Productivity<\/span><\/h2>\nEurope\u2019s productivity challenge demands coordinated action across the entire technology stack \u2013 from frontier AI models to secure data centres, from domain-specific data verticals to edge computing and semiconductor capabilities. While global competitors concentrate resources in integrated, monolithic technology stacks, Europe\u2019s pathway to productivity gains lies in the strategic orchestration of several levers: responsibly unlocking data trapped in silos; deploying fit-for-purpose AI solutions tailored to European needs and privacy-preserving values (e.g. small language models); building trusted infrastructure that transforms regulatory compliance from a constraint into a global competitive advantage; and deepening collaboration across universities, research laboratories and industry.<\/p>\n
The actions proposed below focus on the key productivity drivers at each layer of the stack, recognising that advances in one domain can have multiplier effects across others. Improved data access enables more effective AI training; sector-specific models enhance industrial efficiency; and secure, privacy-preserving infrastructure provides the level of trust required for data sharing, value creation and positioning Europe as a values-driven global data-hosting region.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quote-4.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/span>Now<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Establish an EU Data Access Facility and the supporting infrastructure required to unlock data for productivity, industry and health.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Leverage small language models (SLMs) to meet Europe-specific productivity needs and deliver technologically secure and sovereign public services.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Develop domain\u2011specific data clusters using verified, privacy-preserving training data.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Adopt a \u2018signal economy\u2019 approach in Security Operations Centres by prioritising clean, contextual endpoint data for rapid response.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Codify guardrails for hyperscalers and promote shared cloud-sovereignty practices that protect European technological agency.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Tomorrow<\/span><\/h3>\n\u2022 Operationalise industrial data spaces, particularly in manufacturing, and AI\u2011enabled lean manufacturing (e.g. robotics and physical AI)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Build targeted cross-country partnerships to improve data access<\/p>\n
\u2022 Scale AI Factories with sector\u2011specific verticals (e.g. training, datasets, pathways to EU cloud inference).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Strengthen connections between universities and industrial research labs through innovative residency and fellowship programmes to retain top talent.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Create (new) incentives for cross-border industry collaboration and start-up-industry partnerships, focused on developing business cases for digital sovereignty and operational excellence.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Intensify demand-creation<\/p>\n
<\/span>Day After<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Develop a unified cyber\u2011defence framework for EU data centres to enhance cloud security, strengthen trust and improve Europe\u2019s global competitiveness.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Reinforce the hardware and cryptographic trust chain, including planning for post-quantum migration.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Position Europe as a values\u2011based global data-hosting region, operating on an \u2018exclusivity access\u2019 logic.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Act on Ecosystems<\/span><\/h2>\nEurope\u2019s technological resilience depends on its ability to connect actors, standards and infrastructures into functioning ecosystems. Shared interfaces and platforms \u2013 within and across Member States \u2013 can reduce fragmentation, accelerate learning and transform isolated pilots into interoperable services at scale. Scaling EU Digital Identity Wallets and other DPI measures could unlock trusted, cross-border services. In parallel, jointly defined sovereignty requirements, along with mandated portability blueprints and exit tests, will strengthen systems against single-vendor dependency and should become core design principles to avoid lock-in and concentration risks.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Europe Europe should deepen partnerships with digital-first countries to learn from their successes and failures \u2013 and to export European playbooks. Singapore\u2019s GovTech model, Ukraine\u2019s Diia platform and India\u2019s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) demonstrate how ecosystem choices can drive adoption and resilience at scale. At the operational level, Europe already has scaffolding for knowledge-sharing, including the CSIRTs Network and the NIS2 framework. Now is the time to build on this foundation by supporting European DPIs, GovTech initiatives and resilience communities, and by strengthening international tech diplomacy.<\/p>\n
![\"quote](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quote-5.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/span>Now<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Invest decisively in European ecosystem-building through shared interfaces and platforms that enable knowledge exchange, diversify perspectives and foster shared understandings \u2013 for example, cybersecurity communities, Digital Public Good and DPI communities, GovTech communities and resilience networks.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Establish a dedicated dialogue space or common protocol to explore Europe\u2019s future \u2018unique selling points\u2019 and articulate a forward-looking societal and economic model for the coming decades.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Create unifying narratives around European sovereignty projects to build a shared understanding of European technological alternatives and shift the framing from \u2018competitors\u2019 to \u2018friendly alternatives\u2019 within the single market.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Tomorrow<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Expand sectoral partnerships with digital-first countries such as India, Estonia, Singapore and Ukraine on priority areas including cybersecurity, GovTech and digital public infrastructures.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jointly define sovereignty requirements and align them with EU cybersecurity legislation for cloud services and business software used in critical public functions.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mandate portability blueprints, exit tests, and multi\u2011region deployment to reduce hyperscaler concentration risk.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Day After<\/span><\/h4>\n\u2022 Scale EU\u2011wide digital wallets for citizens and businesses with high adoption targets.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Institutionalise public\u2011private collaboration architectures across the EU and foster international tech diplomacy initiatives.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Europe as the Values-Based Barycentre of Trust for the Global Digital World<\/span><\/h2>\nEurope\u2019s digital sovereignty and resilience challenge is not about abrupt decoupling or self-sufficiency, but about agency and the capacity to shape technological foundations. That capacity has been weakened by fragmented markets, under-scaled investments, dependencies shaped by geopolitical dynamics and false binaries between competitiveness and resilience that prevent Europe from strategically leveraging its strengths.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quote-6.png\")
<\/p>\n
This brief proposes a path that moves beyond reactive policymaking towards proactive, incremental and feasible steps. It calls for a complementarity-driven approach that builds on Europe\u2019s existing excellence as the starting point for renewed global competitiveness. Rather than merely plugging gaps as they appear or attempting unrealistic leaps towards full technological self-reliance, the methodology advances from areas where Europe already demonstrates competitive strength: industrial expertise, regulatory leadership, research capacity and values-based trust.<\/p>\n
The phased timeline (Now-Tomorrow-Day After) reflects a pragmatic approach to collective change. Immediate actions establish the foundations for competitiveness and knowledge capacity; medium-term initiatives scale interventions across sectors and borders and create institutional mechanisms that turn resilience gaps into sustainable assets; and long-term measures transform accumulated advantages into strategic European positioning in the global digital environment. This incremental approach enables learning by doing and allows adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances.<\/p>\n
By sequencing interventions across realistic time horizons, European partnerships can move decisively towards technological agency and resilience, building momentum through tangible achievements that demonstrate viability and attract a broader coalition of support for subsequent phases.<\/p>\n
This approach recognises that sustainable sovereignty does not emerge from national self-sufficiency or the refusal of mutual interdependence, but from reshaping interdependencies through complementarity \u2013 between Member States, between the public and private sectors, and between resilience and competitiveness. It is through these synergies that Europe can reclaim agency in shaping its shared technological future among a range of \u2018European-friendly\u2019 alternatives.<\/p>\n
Europe possesses considerable strengths \u2013 industrial excellence, rich data resources, regulatory leadership and a global reputation for values-based trust. Yet these assets remain undervalued and underused. They require a method for generating incremental action steps that convert latent potential into genuine sovereignty and help Europe move beyond the passive dependency that has gradually taken hold. Re-envisioning Europe\u2019s economic growth model and its collective societal contract for the coming decades is therefore essential.<\/p>\n
A Buy European Act and similar initiatives could serve as innovation engines by transforming procurement from defensive protectionism into an active accelerator of innovation. Such an approach would reward interoperability and certified security performance, while sharing part of the risk inherent in innovation. Member States could also bundle public procurement to act as collective \u2018anchor customers\u2019 for European technology providers. This type of demand-side intervention goes beyond traditional supply-side R&D support by using Europe\u2019s public-sector purchasing power as a strategic industrial policy tool.<\/p>\n
Finally, Europe\u2019s trust advantage in global competition remains an underutilised strategic resource. Rather than viewing GDPR and regulatory rigour as constraints, Europe can position its values and rules as market differentiators \u2013 making the EU the preferred hosting region for organisations seeking sovereign, trusted infrastructure. By inverting the usual narrative, regulatory compliance can be reframed as a competitive advantage that attracts, rather than deters, investment.<\/p>\n
![\"quote](\"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/11\/quote-7.png\")
<\/p>\n
Digital resilience can succeed only as a joint European endeavour with strong coordination mechanisms \u2013 internally among Member States and the European Commission, and externally through the G7 and international standards bodies. The actions outlined in this policy brief are not exhaustive; rather, they represent a first effort to translate abstract principles into concrete steps that directly address Europe\u2019s current bottlenecks. The goal is to shift from defensive gap-filling to proactive capability-building across knowledge, investment, productivity, and ecosystems <\/strong>\u2013 and, ultimately, to achieve strategic resilience across the European stack.<\/p>\nThis policy brief is part of the output generated by select members of the European Network for Technological Resilience & Sovereignty (ETRS). More information and opportunities to engage can be found here: www.etrs.network<\/strong><\/p>\nThis policy brief has been informed by expertise and contributions from the Chatham House Rule Franco\u2011German Dialogue on European Technological Resilience and Sovereignty in Berlin, Germany on October 28th, 2025<\/em><\/p>\nAbout the authors<\/strong><\/p>\nMartin Hullin is the Director, Network for Technological Resilience & Sovereignty at the Europe\u2019s Future Program at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, having previously directed the foundation\u2019s \u201cDigitalization and the Common Good\u201d program from 2023 to 2025. His areas of expertise include international digital and data policy, AI and sustainability policy.<\/p>\n
Murielle Popa-Fabre is Senior Tech and Policy Advisor at the AI & Society Institute at \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9rieure (ENS-PSL Paris), and ML & NLP Expert for the Council of Europe on Human Rights, Privacy and Freedom of Expression (CAI Huderia, CDMSI, TP-D), contributing to AI Governance training (Huderia Academy) and co-rapporteur of the Guidelines on Generative AI and Freedom of Expression.<\/p>\n
Markus Siewert serves as Managing Director of the TUM Think Tank at the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy \/ TUM since April 2022. His work focuses on the governance and negotiation processes shaping digital transformation, with a particular interest in AI, public sector innovation, and digital politics.<\/p>\n
Anke Hassel\u00a0is Professor of Public Policy at the Hertie School.\u00a0From 2016 to 2019 she was the Scientific Director of the WSI at the Hans B\u00f6ckler Foundation. Anke Hassel has extensive international experience and scientific expertise in the fields of the labour market, social partnership, codetermination and the comparative political economy of developed industrial nations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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