Europe's Digital and Technological Sovereignty: Strengthening the Transatlantic Alliance

At the European Defence & Security Summit in Brussels, one panel cut to the heart of a pressing dilemma: how can Europe secure technological and digital sovereignty in an era where cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, and quantum breakthroughs are reshaping the battlefield?

The session — "Technological and Digital Sovereignty in Defense: Cyber, AI, and Quantum" — assembled policymakers, defence veterans, and industry leaders. What emerged was not a confident roadmap, but a chorus of anxieties. Europe risks becoming strategically dependent on the United States while simultaneously exposed to China's expanding technological reach. Unless urgent action is taken, the continent could find itself unable to defend its own sovereignty in the digital age.

Caught between two giants

For decades, Europe's security architecture has rested on American guarantees. But this reliance creates vulnerabilities. With Washington restricting the export of advanced AI chips, European high-performance computing centres risk becoming second or third tier.

The anxiety is not just about technology gaps — it is about political leverage. If Europe cannot build sovereign capabilities in AI and quantum, it will remain dependent on Washington's goodwill: a precarious position as U.S. attention shifts toward the Indo-Pacific.

At the same time, China's growing power looms larger still. Datenna CEO Jaap van Etten highlighted the scale of the challenge:

"There are at least 120,000 Chinese companies supplying the PLA— and many of them are already sending advanced technologies to Russia." — Jaap van Etten

Europe faces a two-front challenge: reliance on the U.S. for the most advanced chips and infrastructure, while Chinese firms increasingly supply its adversaries with critical technologies. But this is not a case for Europe to go it alone. Building stronger European capabilities is the only way to make transatlantic cooperation more balanced, resilient, and effective.

Cyber and AI: fighting blind

Artificial intelligence has become central to defence planning — from analysing satellite imagery to accelerating battlefield decision-making. But AI models are only as effective as the data they are trained on. Europe's lack of access to usable defence data is already limiting progress. Worse, adversaries are moving faster.

Datenna has tracked Chinese firms providing Russia with high-tech optics, while Russian companies supply the Chinese military with software to analyse Ukrainian troop movements.

Jaap van Etten frames sovereignty as first and foremost a question of visibility.

"If you don't know what your adversaries are doing, you're shooting blind. It's like playing whack-a-mole— one against a thousand, blindfolded." — Jaap van Etten

For Europe, sovereignty in AI and cyber is not only about building algorithms or chips. It is about ensuring that intelligence can be gathered, connected, and acted upon at scale — before adversaries exploit the blind spots.

Quantum: deterrence under threat

If AI and cyber define today's battles, quantum technologies may determine tomorrow's. They promise to revolutionise communications, navigation, and cryptography — but they also threaten to undermine Europe's most fundamental security guarantees.

Quantum sensing could one day expose Europe's nuclear submarines, the backbone of its deterrent posture. In Sweden, researchers have already demonstrated a quantum compass small enough to fit on a UAV — a breakthrough that could render GPS obsolete. Without post-quantum cryptography, critical European communications could be compromised.

The battlefield in Ukraine has shown that cycles of innovation are measured in months, not decades. Europe's slow procurement and adoption cycles leave it struggling to keep pace.

Innovation without scale

While Europe has world-class researchers and promising startups, its defence ecosystem lacks scale. Europe's defence production model is both too slow and too expensive.

"Ukraine is innovating faster, because if they fail, they die. Europe's adoption cycles are decades, not months."

Private investment in U.S. defence innovation outpaces Europe by a factor of three. The result is a vicious cycle: Europe produces promising startups, but without scale or financing, they migrate across the Atlantic. Breaking this cycle requires coordinated funding and procurement mechanisms that allow Europe and the U.S. to nurture innovation together, rather than compete for it.

Society unprepared

Perhaps the most sobering observation came from Jaap van Etten, who shifted the discussion from technology to society itself.

"Russia is punching us in the face every day— we just don't feel it," he said, referring to cyber intrusions, disinformation campaigns, and covert technology transfers. — Jaap van Etten

If European societies are unwilling to confront the reality of being under attack, politicians will struggle to make the hard choices on procurement, financing, and sovereignty. Raising public awareness — on both sides of the Atlantic — is a prerequisite for building political will.

From rhetoric to readiness

What emerged from the Brussels discussion was not despair, but urgency. Europe still has assets: strong research communities, innovative startups, and allies willing to cooperate. But unless these are scaled, financed, and coordinated, they will not be enough.

Three immediate priorities stand out:

Sovereignty, in this view, is not about autarky. It is about ensuring that Europe can contribute its share to collective defence — strengthening the transatlantic alliance rather than remaining dependent on it.

A strategic crossroads

The panel closed with more questions than answers. Can Europe finance innovation at scale? Can it adopt new technologies at the pace of modern conflict? Can it educate its societies about the threats they already face?

"We are in dire straits in Europe. We need to wake up geopolitically very soon, or we will face even greater risks."— As one panellist put it bluntly

In the digital age, sovereignty is not an abstract principle — it is a practical necessity. Whether Europe can achieve it, in close cooperation with its transatlantic allies, will determine not only its role on the global stage, but its ability to defend itself in the decades ahead.