Microsoft outage renews European calls for digital independence
The disruption affected millions across 74 countries as EU leaders gathered in Dublin for their first AI summit, Politico Europe reported.
European politicians renewed demands for greater control over digital infrastructure after a Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook and Teams for nearly 24 hours, Politico Europe reported. Millions of users were affected, including many officials attending an EU summit in Dublin.
Mistral chief executive Arthur Mensch addressed the leaders without referring to the disruption. Speaking afterward, he said European infrastructure hosts only 20% of Europe's digital services, according to Politico. He argued that spending on American or Chinese technology could instead support infrastructure and research in Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron subsequently wrote on X that Europe needed to build its own independence. Finnish MEP Aura Salla linked her concerns directly to the outage, saying too much European digital infrastructure had been entrusted to companies outside the EU. She called for government procurement to support European technology.
Sebastian Toffaletti of the Digital SME Alliance said the disruption illustrated the risks of dependence on a small number of technology giants. British Liberal Democrat Victoria Collins urged a digital sovereignty strategy, while German Social Democrat Johannes Schätzl said continued operation during outages should be the measure of digital sovereignty.
Similar demands followed the 2024 CrowdStrike outage. Brussels now has a proposed cloud law that would rate providers according to their degree of sovereignty.
