Poland Seeks To Curb Dependence On Big Tech With “Sovereignty Test”

Poland is preparing to implement a “technological sovereignty test” for major public-sector technology purchases, becoming one of the latest European governments seeking to reduce strategic dependence on U.S. technology providers as governments increasingly treat digital infrastructure as a matter of national security.

The proposed mechanism would apply to large public IT projects and assess whether public institutions retain control over critical systems and data while reducing reliance on foreign vendors.

The initiative reflects growing concerns that dependence on a small number of foreign technology providers could expose essential public services to political or legal decisions made outside Poland. Rather than eliminating foreign technologies altogether, the government says the goal is to strengthen resilience, maintain operational continuity and give the state greater control over critical digital infrastructure.

How the sovereignty test would work

Announced by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the assessment would apply to government technology procurements worth more than 5 million zloty ($1.3 million) and infrastructure projects valued at more than 15 million zloty ($3.9 million).

Among other criteria, it would assess the state’s control over a system’s architecture, ownership or access rights to AI model weights, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

The greatest threat is “jurisdictional, not technical,” says Albert Szczepaniak, director of Security and Quality at Polcom, a Polish data center and cloud services provider.

He argues that relying on providers governed by foreign legislation exposes critical infrastructure to external legal regimes, specifically pointing to U.S. laws such as FISA 702 and the CLOUD Act.

Under the CLOUD Act, U.S. authorities may request access to data held by American companies even if it is stored on servers located in Europe.

Why Poland wants greater technological sovereignty

The proposal comes as Poland’s dependence on imported digital technologies continues to grow despite being one of the European Union’s leaders in the digitalization of public administration.

Poland’s digital imports increased from 9 billion zloty ($2.3 billion) in 2016 to nearly 48 billion zloty ($12.5 billion) in 2024, growing by an average of 25% annually. Over the same period, digital exports remained largely unchanged at around 3 billion zloty ($780 million), leaving the country with a digital trade deficit of roughly 45 billion zloty ($11.7 billion).

Analysts estimate that by the end of the decade, digital imports could exceed the total value of Poland’s imports of oil, gas and coal.

The cloud computing market illustrates this dependence. Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google together account for more than 70% of Poland’s cloud market, limiting competition and increasing reliance on a handful of global providers.

Reducing dependence without abandoning U.S. technology

Government officials stress that technological sovereignty does not mean cutting Poland off from foreign technology providers.

According to recommendations by the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Future Council, an advisory body appointed by Tusk, completely replacing U.S. technology providers would be neither technically feasible nor economically desirable.

Instead, the government aims to build domestic alternatives in strategic segments representing roughly 20% to 30% of the market, including government cloud services, databases and simpler enterprise systems. Officials argue that developing alternatives in these areas would give the state greater negotiating power, improve resilience and keep a larger share of digital spending within Poland.

Marcin Wysocki, deputy director of the Cybersecurity Department at the Ministry of Digital Affairs, said technological sovereignty should not be understood as isolation from foreign suppliers, but rather as the state’s ability to make informed choices, maintain control over its data, ensure operational continuity and manage technological dependencies.

Szczepaniak believes reaching that target is ambitious but achievable within five years. He points to European estimates suggesting that retaining just 15% of current spending on cloud services and software within Europe by 2035 could generate €37 billion ($42 billion) in added value and create more than 460,000 jobs.

Public procurement has strengthened Big Tech’s grip

According to the Warsaw-based Instrat Foundation, Poland’s current procurement model has reinforced dependence on foreign technology providers. In its recent report, 99% of 72 public tenders analyzed directly or indirectly excluded alternatives to Microsoft products, despite procurement rules prohibiting specifications that unnecessarily restrict competition.

As a result, domestic and European companies are often limited to acting as resellers of Microsoft licenses rather than competing with their own software.

“Lower security, lower resilience, and lower investment in technologies developed in Poland and Europe are the consequences of relying to such an extent on a single supplier from outside the EU,” said the report’s author, Jarosław Kopeć. He warned that dependence on one provider leaves public administration vulnerable to price increases, service disruptions and the withdrawal of services.

Szczepaniak argues a Polish institution buying a “domestic cloud” that simply resells infrastructure from U.S. hyperscalers does not improve technological sovereignty. “The entire supply chain, not the logo on the invoice, should be assessed,” he says.

A separate report by the Polish Network of Economics argues that digital sovereignty should be treated as a national security issue, with cloud services, government IT systems and public data regarded as critical infrastructure on par with energy and transport networks.

Wiesław Wilk, president of the Polish Cloud Association, said continued reliance on technologies outside Poland’s control to deliver public services could create long-term strategic vulnerabilities.

“In an extreme scenario, losing access to such services could have consequences for the functioning of the state comparable to a disruption in supplies of critical raw materials or energy,” he said.

A broader European push for technological sovereignty

Poland’s initiative reflects a broader trend taking shape across Europe, where governments are seeking to reduce strategic dependence on non-European technology providers while avoiding complete technological decoupling.

As the relationship with the U.S. has become more uncertain, concerns over the concentration of cloud services among a handful of American companies have grown, alongside efforts to strengthen Europe’s technological resilience.

In June, the European Commission unveiled its most comprehensive initiative yet to strengthen the bloc’s technological sovereignty. The package aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on non-European providers in strategic sectors including semiconductors, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and open-source software.