Dutch Parliament Calls For End To Dependence On US Software Companies

The Dutch parliament approved motions urging the government to reduce reliance on U.S. software companies by developing a sovereign cloud platform and reconsidering contracts with American firms. Reuters reports: While such initiatives have foundered in the past due to a lack of viable European alternatives, lawmakers said changing relations with the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump have given the issue fresh urgency. 'The question we as Europeans must ask ourselves is: do we feel comfortable with people like Trump, (Meta CEO Mark) Zuckerberg and (X owner Elon) Musk ruling over our data?' said Marieke Koekkoek of the pro-European Volt party, who authored one of the eight motions, in an email to Reuters.

In addition to launching a sovereign cloud services platform, the motions called on the government to re-examine a decision to use Amazon's web services for the Netherlands' internet domain hosting, and to develop alternatives to U.S. software and preferential treatment for European firms in public tenders. Bert Hubert, a Dutch technology expert who has advocated for reducing dependency on the U.S., said: 'This is only the first step in potentially doing something.' But he said one important outcome would be forcing agencies to publicly report on risks related to their reliance on U.S. cloud firms. 'With the advent of Trump 2.0, it has become clear that this is not something you can harmlessly sign off on,' he said.

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