The Dutch Data Protection Authority has issued a warning. Critical national infrastructure depends on a small number of foreign IT suppliers. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft host most of the essential systems.
Government operations, healthcare systems, and payment networks all run on these platforms. This creates vulnerability to external political decisions.
The Authority points to what happened before. In 2021, the U.S. government told Microsoft to cut email services to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The services stopped.
The Netherlands is now looking at European alternatives. A nationally managed cloud infrastructure, “Rijkscloud,” is under discussion. So far, progress has been slow.
A U.S. firm wants to acquire the company operating DigiD. Dutch citizens need DigiD to access essential government services. The situation is being watched.
Guidance on digital sovereignty is being prepared. Implementation will follow later.
