EU Newsletter · 04. June 2026

Commission proposes tech sovereignty package to strengthen Europe's digital autonomy and resilience

A major shift in Europe’s digital landscape is unfolding. With the European Commission's latest announcement and Ireland preparing to take the helm of the Council of the EU, the focus on technological sovereignty has never been sharper.

The European Commission has presented the European Technological Sovereignty Package, a set of measures to strengthen Europe's capacity in semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and open source.

The package includes two legislative proposals - the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act - as well as the Open Source Strategy and a Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy.

Together, these measures support Europe's ambition to become an AI continent, strengthen its digital autonomy and help build a more sustainable digital future. They will help widen choice in core technologies for EU businesses, citizens and public administrations.

The move comes as Europe remains heavily dependent on suppliers outside the European Union for core digital technologies and as demand for computing capacity rises sharply with the spread of AI. It is designed to reduce structural dependencies and make sure Europe can develop, deploy and secure the technologies Europeans rely on. It signals a major shift in the EU's approach to technology.

Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said:

“We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure. This is about protecting our citizens, defending our interests and making our own choices. Europe has the talent, the research excellence, the industrial base and the Single Market. Together, we must turn these strengths into technological sovereignty.”

Ireland’s Presidency: Shaping the Competitiveness Agenda

Dublin, which will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU from July 1, 2026, aims first and foremost to present a progress report on the Digital Networks Act. Ireland hopes to obtain a partial compromise on this text, which Cyprus has been dissecting article by article for weeks.

As part of the review of the cybersecurity regulation, the future Council presidency wants to organize "discussions on broader topics" such as supply chain security. More generally, Dublin intends to "play a central role in shaping and advancing the EU's competitiveness agenda." And therefore, to be "supportive" of the development of the 28th harmonized regime for start-ups, the revision of the semiconductor regulation, the European Business Wallet trilogues and/or the advancement of discussions on the Horizon Europe research program. Dublin makes only a very brief mention of the omnibus data – the current Cypriot presidency aims to finalize the dossier – and does not mention the Digital Fairness Act which is due to be presented in the autumn.