Dynamo speaks at the European Parliament in Brussels at the conference “Toward European Digital Independence”

Congratulations to Alexandra Geese, Francesca Bria and Cristina Caffarra for having organised this timely and interesting conference at the European Parliament on the idea of a #EuroStack.

The driving idea behind this conference stems from the expectation that investment in European public goods and infrastructure will be a key priority for the new EC mandate. Digital Public Infrastructures need to be a core piece of this – to power growth of a European innovation ecosystem, reduce reliance on foreign giant corporations, address public needs, protect rights, and support democracy.

A multi-party group of Members of the European Parliament (EPP, S&D, Renew and the Greens) invited September 24, 2024, to a major kick-off event – “Toward European Digital Independence: Building the EuroStack” – at the European Parliament.

The intention was to put this objective firmly on the agenda of the next Commission, with Parliament and Member States committing to pursue it.  The invitees clearly stated that this was not meant to be a lobbying event, but the effort of convening an exceptional group of leaders and organisations with relevant practical expertise in open digital commons such as open AI models and applications, data spaces, open knowledge tools, privacy-preserving digital IDs, and digital payments- and critical infrastructural components of the tech stack, such as cloud and data centres. And they did not disappoint. The European perspective was enriched by international guests from outside the EU, including participants from Brazil, India, and Taiwan.

The afternoon’s panel, “European Public Digital Infrastructure: Building the Euro Stack,” brought together a distinguished group of policymakers and leading experts for an agenda-setting discussion on the foundations of a secure and accountable digital public infrastructure. The panel explored how these building blocks can be constructed to ensure European digital independence and their impact on data spaces.

Francesco Bonfiglio, CEO of Dynamo, started with a truly alarming statement: “European Cloud Service Providers have lost about 3/4 of their market over the past 3 years!”
Alongside Boris Otto, Dr. Ignacio M. Llorente, Paolo De Rosa, Carmela Troncoso, Marleen Stikker, Mateo Valero, Dr. Fabrizio Gagliardi, and Francesca Bria, Francesco emphasized, “If the problem lies in the market, we need to act in the market. Digital is not just a paradigm; we must view ‘Digital’ as a market!”

He also underlined the importance of both understanding and defining sovereignty. In essence, he stated, “If you are unable to control technology in a society – in a world dominated by technology – you will not be able to be sovereign, meaning you won’t be able to apply your own laws within your own domain or space.”

So, what is needed to achieve data or digital sovereignty in Europe? Francesco asserts: “Trust!” He explains that the real challenge today is not the lack of technology, but the lack of trust in technology.

Market data supports his statement, as cloud adoption in Europe remains relatively low. According to various recent studies, the adoption rate ranges from 30% to just below 50%, with some reports even suggesting it is below 30%. This indicates that up to 70% of databases may not yet be stored in the cloud.

This is why the initiative of building the #EuroStack will play a privotal role. It will shift paradigms, ambitions and expectations, digital sovereignty and the need to build trust in technology “through transparency, interoperability, and controllability”, values that also Dynamo upholds.

The EuroStack initiative will bring together tech, governance and funding for Europe-focused investment to build and adopt a suite of interoperable digital infrastructures. Infrastructure is not an end in itself: It needs independence, context, goals and ambitions. It was explained that true independence requires decentralised architectures of ownership that are federated, distributed, independent but interconnected and interoperable. Such decentralisation effectively means decolonising infrastructure, and there is much to learn from historical examples as well as current attempts to regain data sovereignty in e.g., Brazil and India.
Not just to keep up with the next wave of digitalisation and generative AI. There was common agreeement that we also need independent digital infrastructures to drive the climate transition, to empower rural and remote areas, and to allow Europe’s diversity of art, culture and creativity to flourish.
The panel also touched the huge issue for cloud competitors (in Europe or elsewhere) to overcome the economies of scale (and potentially anticompetitive tactics) of the so-called “hyperscalers” and gatekeepers which dominate the market.

A European Commission official told the audience to watch out what the Commissioners-designate say in their confirmation hearings in the next couple of months. Stay tuned for more!

Read more about this conference:
https://digitalindependenceeu.wordpress.com/

Watch the entire 5-hours event on YouTube: