Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001618/2025/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 144
Per Clausen (The Left)
Today, both the EU and its Member States are heavily dependent on US firms’ IT solutions. Not only does that dependence constitute a strategic vulnerability; continued dependence also means that, every year, large amounts of European public funds are transferred to software firms in the US instead of contributing to building a competitive European IT sector.
The present geopolitical situation makes it clear that the EU needs to be independent from the US in a number of areas, including technology. A number of countries have become alive to the problem; and the German Government, for example, is working to disengage the German defence setup from software from Microsoft and similar firms.[1]
In the light of this:
- 1.What is the estimated amount of money that could be saved if just half of EU and Member State public bodies switched to open-source IT solutions costing half of what is currently paid in licences and the like to US tech giants?
- 2.How many US-owned or -based software programmes does the Commission currently use?
Submitted: 23.4.2025
- [1] https://zendis.de/ressourcen/bwi-und-zendis-schliessen-rahmenvertrag-ueber-souveraene-kommunikations-und-kollaborationsloesungen