Joint Statement on Building a Dynamic, Resilient and Sovereign Technology Ecosystem

As European leaders gathered in Gdańsk for the 2025 EU Digital Summit, Open Future joined civil society organizations from across the continent to issue a joint statement urging the EU to take decisive action to secure our digital future.

The statement, titled “Time to Build a Dynamic, Resilient, and Sovereign Technology Ecosystem in Europe”, sets out a vision for a digital ecosystem premised on the values of openness, interoperability, accountability, and resilience. It calls for the EU and its Member States to align regulation, enforcement, investment, and procurement around the goal of building a sovereign, open, and democratic digital infrastructure that serves the public interest.

Digital technologies are the backbone of our democracies, economies, and daily lives. However, their underlying infrastructure remains dominated by a handful of closed, monopolistic platforms operating on opaque and extractive models.

The EU has the technical talent, research capabilities, and economic power to offer a real alternative. But moving away from a reliance on proprietary platforms will require sustained political commitment and significant public investment.

The statement outlines four concrete priorities for action:

1. Directing Significant Investment Toward an Open, Interoperable Ecosystem
2. Leveraging the Digital Markets Act to Address Cloud, Social Media and Technical Interoperability
3. Developing European Cloud Infrastructure to Achieve Global Competitiveness
4. Backing an Independent European Social Web Based on Open Protocols

This statement reflects Open Future’s commitment to public digital infrastructures as the foundation for an open and pluralistic internet that enhances sovereignty and supports inclusive, rights-based digital ecosystems. We are glad that a joint civil society statement highlights the need for Europe to invest in open, interoperable infrastructures – an issue we have long advocated for.

The EU has already charted a path towards the democratic governance of technology through initiatives like the GDPR, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act. But regulation is not enough, and the EU and Member States must act now to lay the groundwork for digital sovereignty. There remains a need for investing in alternatives that reflect democratic values and reduce structural dependence on commercial platforms.

Read the statement