EuroStack is a set of initiatives of academics, politicians, commentators and industry players aimed at building an independent European digital infrastructure to limit the dependence of the European Union on foreign technology and US companies.[1][2]
The EuroStack discussion was initiated in September 2024 at a conference organized by Cristina Caffarra, Francesca Bria and Meredith Whittaker and hosted by the European Parliament in Brussels. The term itself was coined by Glen Weyl a few months prior.[3][4][5]
On January 10, 2025, a group of industry experts including Caffarra published the first “EuroStack” pitch, arguing a case for the initiative.[6] Over 80 organisations signed the letter.[7][8]
In February 2025, a group of academics, jointly with the Bertelsmann Stiftung and CEPS launched a separate initiative. The academics group included Francesca Bria and Paul Timmers. In June 2025, their proposal received the support of the European Parliament's ITRE Committee.[9]
EuroStack advocates put forward that 80% of European technology is imported creating a dependency on US Big Tech and China. Bria and Timmers's version of the initiative calls to mobilize €300 billion over 10 years to invest in European technological independence.[2]
In their commentary in Foreign Policy in February 2025, Francesca Bria and Haroon Sheikh [nl] presented the EuroStack as Europe's last chance to preserve its sovereignty in the digital age.[10] Advocates of EuroStack have repeatedly referred to the risk of the EU becoming a digital colony.[9]
Cecilia Rikap and Aline Blankertz warned against the protectionism undertone of the initiative to break away from US tech dependency. Rikap and Blankertz recognize the threat to democracy that the dependency on US tech represents. They argue for a measured approach of investing in core technologies, in particular cloud services, instead of writing large checks to subsidize aspirational national champions. European public procurement, would be one important strand in a EuroStack strategy according to the two economists.[11]
Sebastiano Toffaletti and Cristina Caffarra have embarked on a legal battle over the right to use of the brand EuroStack. Both consider themselves to be founders of the initiative. Toffaletti filed a claim first with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, that Caffarra is contesting on the grounds that "Toffaletti could not apply for the trademark as the Eurostack term is already "used in the course of trade"".[12] Caffarra was initially associated with the public initiative together with Francesca Bria. The spat between Caffarra and other participants led to confusion among commentators as to which initiative is rightly referred to as EuroStack.
In and around Brussels, the European Union's capital, a growing coalition of entrepreneurs, economists, thinkers, policymakers and assorted gadflies is bandying about the term "EuroStack" to label the effort for the bloc to build its own digital infrastructure and ease its dependence on US Big Tech.
