Microsoft today, Linux tomorrow? Europe’s long road to digital independence

European governments are racing to reduce their reliance on American technology companies, driven by fears that Washington could use digital services as political leverage. Mathieu Pollet and Anouk Schlung report for Politico that the effort is proving far more difficult and expensive than officials had anticipated.

The urgency stems from a stark imbalance. Amazon, Microsoft and Google control around 70 percent of the EU’s cloud market. American vendors receive 80 percent of European corporate spending on enterprise software. Everything from government email systems to health and welfare infrastructure runs on U.S. platforms.

The concern is no longer theoretical. After the U.S. sanctioned International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan, he reportedly lost access to his Microsoft account. ICC Judge Nicolas Guillou faced the same outcome. Guillou described the effect as “a kind of civil death.” A recent survey found that 86 percent of Europeans consider a U.S. move to restrict digital services to the EU “plausible,” while 59 percent call it “already a real and concrete risk.”

Germany’s northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, became the first public administration in Europe to act decisively. Under Digital Minister Dirk Schrödter, the state replaced Microsoft Office with the open-source alternative LibreOffice and migrated 40,000 email accounts from Outlook to OpenXchange between April and October 2025. The state plans to complete a full switch from Windows to Linux by 2028. It reports saving 15 million euros in licensing costs after investing 9 million euros in the transition.

The rollout, however, exposed serious problems. Michael Burmeister, director at the District Court of Ahrensburg, reported limited email access in the weeks following the switchover, which created difficulties in urgent legal cases. Even months later, missing functions and an absent spell checker added 10 to 20 percent to staff workloads. Labor union ver.di warned of insufficient training, and opposition politicians argued the process was rushed.

Amsterdam is pursuing a more cautious approach. Former Deputy Mayor Alexander Scholtes designed a plan with a 2035 deadline for hosting all sensitive data and critical systems on European infrastructure. A midpoint target calls for 30 percent European cloud usage by 2030. Scholtes was direct about the stakes: “We would have a huge problem if Microsoft stopped its services.”

The Dutch capital’s plan will cost several million euros in its first phase alone, which focuses on mapping existing dependencies and testing European alternatives.

U.S. companies have responded by launching products with EU-based governance structures and local operators. Critics dismiss these offerings as “sovereignty washing.” French lawmaker Philippe Latombe put it bluntly: “Marketers realized it sells.”

German-based office software provider Nextcloud reported a tripling in leads and 2 million new professional users following Trump’s return to office, signaling that demand for European alternatives is growing rapidly.