Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleThe Dutch parliament seeks to reduce dependence on US software by proposing a Dutch-controlled cloud platform, driven by changing US relations.
By Toby Sterling
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands' parliament on Tuesday approved a series of motions calling on the government to reduce dependence on U.S. software companies, including by creating a cloud services platform under Dutch control.
While such initiatives have foundered in the past due to a lack of viable European alternatives, lawmakers said changing relations with the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump have given the issue fresh urgency.
"The question we as Europeans must ask ourselves is: do we feel comfortable with people like Trump, (Meta CEO Mark) Zuckerberg and (X owner Elon) Musk ruling over our data?" said Marieke Koekkoek of the pro-European Volt party, who authored one of the eight motions, in an email to Reuters.
In addition to launching a sovereign cloud services platform, the motions called on the government to re-examine a decision to use Amazon's web services for the Netherlands' internet domain hosting, and to develop alternatives to U.S. software and preferential treatment for European firms in public tenders.
The vote comes a day after dozens of European tech firms called on the European Commission to create a sovereign fund to invest in European technology, including cloud infrastructure, and a "Buy European" mandate.
A spokesperson for the Economic Affairs ministry declined comment.
Bert Hubert, a Dutch technology expert who has advocated for reducing dependency on the U.S., said: "This is only the first step in potentially doing something."
But he said one important outcome would be forcing agencies to publicly report on risks related to their reliance on U.S. cloud firms.
"With the advent of Trump 2.0, it has become clear that this is not something you can harmlessly sign off on," he said.
One issue cited in the debate ahead of Tuesday's vote was the possibility that Microsoft could stop working with the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on the war crimes court last month after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Amazon and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by David Goodman, Bernadette Baum and Hugh Lawson)
The Dutch parliament's call to reduce dependence on US software companies by creating a Dutch-controlled cloud platform.
Changing relations with the US under Trump's presidency have heightened concerns over data control by US tech giants.
Creating a sovereign cloud platform and re-examining the use of US cloud services for Dutch internet domain hosting.
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