Financial Times2 January 2026
Some quotes below:
Europe is so far behind the US in digital infrastructure it has “lost the internet”, a top European cyber enforcer has warned.
Miguel De Bruycker, director of the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), told the Financial Times that it was “currently impossible” to store data fully in Europe because US companies dominate digital infrastructure.
“We’ve lost the whole cloud. We have lost the internet, let’s be honest,” De Bruycker said. “If I want my information 100 per cent in the EU . . . keep on dreaming,” he added. “You’re setting an objective that is not realistic.”
The Belgian official warned that Europe’s cyber defences depended on the co-operation of private companies, most of which are American. “In cyber space, everything is commercial. Everything is privately owned,” he said.
[…]
Europe needed to build its own capabilities to strengthen innovation and security, said De Bruycker, adding that legislation such as the EU’s AI Act, which regulates the development of the fast-developing technology, was “blocking” innovation.
He suggested that EU governments should support private initiatives to build scale in areas such as cloud computing or digital identification technologies.
It could be similar to when European countries jointly set up the planemaker Airbus, he said: “Everybody was supporting the Airbus initiatives decades ago. We need the same initiative on [an] EU level in the cyber domain.”
Europe has ‘lost the internet’, warns Belgium’s cyber security chief
byu/vanderbeeken inbelgium
Posted by vanderbeeken
11 Comments
Most datacenters in Europe are Azure / AWS infrastructure. Sure, there is OVH as one of the only actual alternatives, but migrating will be costly and I’m not even sure it is actually possible due to the sheer scale the traditional centers have
And now with AI companies reserving compute leading to exploding hardware prices we’re even more priced out.
I’m aware of multiple big projects actually doing the migration thing to European providers, so the will is there, just needs a tipping point and lots of juicy Euro investments
We know , if we are being fair it was never really I’m the race
> He suggested that EU governments should support private initiatives to build scale in areas such as cloud computing or digital identification technologies.
As long as capital markets in the EU remain fractured and the process of raising money is overly burdensome, it will remain more attractive for promising European (tech) companies to move overseas.
Not only is raising funds in the US a lot easier, the amounts private investors are willing to invest are a lot higher.
This was also outlined in the Draghi report, and Europe should act on this point asap.
Belgium is always cloudy, how come they still they have issues with cloud data center?
Companies have much difficulty raising capital in Europe. Because of this, they often move to the US or are bought up by US companies.
Investing in companies is also much harder in Europe. Just look at how many taxes you have to pay just to buy and sell a share.
How can EU compete if we have 27 capital markets? We keep (rightfully) complaining about the Trump customs (a.k.a. tarrifs), but we don’t address the regulatory barriers that effectively put customs bariers inside the “common” market.
We just need to start thinking more radically.
America is forcing tiktok to sell it’s American part.
Europe is full of American datacenters. We can force those to become European, instead of having to build new competing ones next to them.
These mega corps need to be split up anyways, as they have too much monopoly power
As a regulator, CCB should not be commenting on the EU AI Act, especially when it’s under scrutiny as part of the omnibus discussion. Where is Miguel’s proof that “it impedes on innovation”? The irony is that he’s continuing US big tech talking points when he should really be quiet given his role.
Meanwhile the US is even accelerating deregulation at speeds never seen before.
We’re cooked y’all
Read the Vassal State, it talks about how American firms have bought up British businesses, almost sucking them dry. Great read, resonates a lot with your story.
We have cloud storage in Europe that are fully hosted in Europe, for example say drime, OVH, filen… Initiatives are starting to build more as the quest for independence is getting bigger.
I suppose CCB is focusing on the big players (Amazon, Microsoft) are USA based. Most companies have Microsoft tools but with some effort it’s possible to go fully European or offload some of the tools to the European providers.