Denmark’s new government aligns with EU push to reduce reliance on US tech giants

Denmark’s newly formed coalition government has taken its first step toward fulfilling a campaign pledge to strengthen digital sovereignty, as the European Commission unveiled a sweeping plan Wednesday to reduce Europe’s dependence on American cloud services, AI, and semiconductor production, DR reports.

The center-left government—comprising Social Democrats, the Socialist People’s Party, Moderates, and Radical Left—explicitly committed in its policy platform to supporting EU efforts to build technological autonomy. “The dominance of a few large non-European tech firms in critical technologies has created vulnerabilities,” the agreement states, pledging active Danish participation in fortifying the EU’s digital single market and developing homegrown alternatives.

The Commission’s new action plan, presented Wednesday, marks the bloc’s “most targeted single initiative” to date to curb reliance on US providers, according to a statement. Key measures include mandatory risk assessments for public-sector use of non-European cloud services handling sensitive data in health, finance, and justice systems. Where data is deemed highly sensitive, storage will be restricted to EU-owned servers. The goal is to triple Europe’s data center capacity within seven years.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen framed the shift as a necessity: “We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable, and our public services secure.”

The move follows a January report by Denmark’s Digitalisation Agency, Local Government Denmark (KL), and Danish Regions, which found that Danish public institutions heavily rely on US solutions like Microsoft Office and Gmail. The report warned that storing sensitive data outside the EU weakens transparency, protection, and ownership—potentially granting foreign intelligence access to citizens’ information. “Lack of control over public data undermines trust in authorities and democracy itself,” it concluded.

Danish agencies also depend on US-controlled app stores for critical services, including the newly launched AltID digital identity app, which debuted Wednesday as an alternative to physical photo IDs.

The policy shift reflects broader European unease over vulnerabilities exposed by geopolitical tensions. DR’s EU and NATO correspondent Ole Ryborg noted in an analysis that threats by former US President Donald Trump against Greenland had heightened concerns about potential American restrictions on tech access. EU Parliament data shows three US providers—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud—currently control 70% of Europe’s cloud market.