Time To Ditch US Tech For Homegrown Options, Says Dutch Parliament

Not content to wait for open letters to influence the European Commission, Dutch parliamentarians have taken matters into their own hands by passing eight motions urging the government to ditch US-made tech for homegrown alternatives.

With each IT service our government moves to American tech giants, we become dumber and weaker...

The motions were submitted and all passed yesterday during a discussion in the Netherlands' House of Representatives on concerns about government data being shipped overseas. While varied, they all center on the theme of calling on the government to replace software and hardware made by US tech companies, acquire new contracts with Dutch companies who offer similar services, and generally safeguard the country's digital sovereignty.

"With each IT service our government moves to American tech giants, we become dumber and weaker," Dutch MP Barbara Kathmann, author of four of the motions, told The Register. "If we continue outsourcing all of our digital infrastructure to billionaires that would rather escape Earth by building space rockets, there will be no Dutch expertise left."

Kathmann's measures specifically call on the government to stop the migration of Dutch information and communications technology to American cloud services, the creation of a Dutch national cloud, the repatriation of the .nl top-level domain to systems operating within the Netherlands, and for the preparation of risk analyses and exit strategies for all government systems hosted by US tech giants. The other measures make similar calls for eliminating the presence of US tech companies in government systems and the preference of local alternatives.

"We have identified the causes of our full dependency on US services," Kathmann told us. "We have to start somewhere – by pausing all thoughtless migrations to American hyperscalers, new opportunities open up for Dutch and European providers."

The motions passed by the Dutch parliament come as the Trump administration ratchets up tensions with a number of US allies – the EU among them. Nearly 100 EU-based tech companies and lobbyists sent an open letter to the European Commission this week asking it to find a way to divest the bloc from systems managed by US companies due to "the stark geopolitical reality Europe is now facing."

Concerns over European reliance on US tech companies are mounting, with tech experts in the EU sounding the call as the Trump administration's international posture becomes increasingly bellicose. 

Boffins in the Netherlands, in particular, rang the alarm in February, with Dutch Electoral Council technical advisor Bert Hubert warning that using US cloud services was no longer safe for either the government or civil society.

It's perhaps for that reason that parliamentarians have been considering the motions passed yesterday for a while, as Kathmann explained.

"The US government has made the call for tech sovereignty an urgent geopolitical issue," Kathmann said. "We support EU tech's open letter, but these motions have a longer history."

• Trump administration threatens tariffs for any nation that dares to tax Big Tech
• EU lassos tech giants in bid to rein in the AI Wild West
• Ex-US Cyber Command chief: Europe and 5 Eyes can't fully replicate US intel
• Biden urged to do something about Europe 'unfairly' targeting American tech

Kathmann told us her party, an opposition coalition of the Green and Labor parties, had been working with the governing centrist party, New Social Contract, to develop a new Dutch-centric tech plan since last year, the need for which has been made more pressing as American rhetoric shifts.

"The willingness of the Trump government to use their Big Tech monopoly to put political pressure on European governments, like the threat made to the International Criminal Court, and the attack on European tech laws (DSA, DMA) by VP Vance at the Munich Security Council, have shaken up Dutch politics," Kathmann said.

Will the government actually act?

If the Dutch government takes action, the Netherlands would be the first European nation to repatriate its tech stack from US companies as relations sour. The government is under no obligation to conform to the nonbinding motions, however.

"With eight out of eight proposals passed, it's almost impossible for the government to not take action," Kathmann insisted. "The State Secretary is not legally obligated to follow up on motions, but not acting on such a broad majority in parliament is nearly unheard of."

A spokesperson for the House of Representatives told us "almost all" motions put to the House are accepted, which may mean that the eight-for-eight passage puts less pressure on the government than Kathmann hopes.

That said, a ninth measure discussed alongside the other eight motions also passed, and the government has already accepted it. That particular measure, which asks the government to increase cooperation in the government service when it comes to implementing information provisions and digitization policies, doesn't mention divestment from US tech companies. Nonetheless, its passage signals the government is paying attention.

"Our party will do whatever we can to keep the government to the parliamentary calls to action," Kathmann said. ®