- European companies are deeply locked in suitable suites and foreign office systems
- American platforms manage the communication backbones of the largest corporations in Europe
- The dependence on external suppliers exposes public services and medical care to foreign supervision
For years, European governments and corporations greatly supported American technology offers instead of promoting local alternatives.
This choice now entails visible consequences, since the changing trade rules and trade rules brought by the Trump administration drastically remodel the balance of power.
A recent analysis of business email domains in Europe by Proton shows that a surprising majority of most companies that are quoted in the stock market depend on US suppliers such as Google and Microsoft.
The data reveal the depth of trust
Behind the rhetoric of digital sovereignty, the reality is that much of Europe’s digital infrastructure is based on technology batteries that entities outside their border control. It is not only convenience software, but also essential systems that support finance, health and public services.
Email may seem worldly, but often serves as the entrance door to office software, online collaboration platforms and cloud -based storage.
When a company undertakes an email provider, it generally adopts the complete suite, integrating foreign technology into its operations.
This trend is not limited to smaller economies, but also includes the largest players in the continent, where the dependency cuts industries, from energy and telecommunications to pharmaceutical products.
In countries such as Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden, more than 90% of companies that are traded in the stock market depend on US email and related infrastructure services.
However, the shocker is probably Ireland, which is in Loggerheads with the US. In several policies, but 93% of its businesses depend on US technology.
The United Kingdom, although mostly an ally of the United States, has an alarming 88% of companies that depend on American technology, while other European heavyweights such as Spain, Portugal and Switzerland registered 74%, 72% and 68% of companies that depend on US technology, respectively.
Even France, which often defends its own autonomy, sees two out of three (66%) companies linked to US suppliers.
Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria (16%) and Romania (39%) are the least dependent on American technology, and Russia is not even on the list of nations that depend on the United States.
National security concerns arise when public services, transport systems and medical care facilities are communicated through foreign jurisdictions governed, but perhaps not when the network belongs to the United States.
Trust extends far beyond convenience; It is embedded in the same systems that Europeans use every day: the dependence of foreign technology not only presents a financial vulnerability; Ask questions about surveillance, geopolitical leverage and the future of innovation.
The training programs outside of Europe can sweep confidential commercial data, while the dependence on external platforms exposes companies to legal demands without guarantee.
This arrangement has also encouraged a talent and capital drain, since engineers and investors direct their approach to Silicon Valley instead of strengthening European ecosystems, either through proprietary services or alternative distributions of Linux.
Some argue that American technology simply offers the best available tools, which may be true in terms of global efficiency and scope, however, the consequences of trust are increasingly difficult to ignore, since the United States can turn off the change at any time, and thousands of companies will be in crisis.
The fact that so many European companies cannot operate without American software demonstrates the fragile nature of Europe’s autonomy.
Instead of ensuring independence, Europe runs the risk of locking each other even more in external units at a time when political winds in Washington are changing.
