Parts of Horizon Europe lack ‘tangible results,’ digital sovereignty report warns

Money should be diverted away from underperforming parts of Horizon Europe towards bigger, commercially sustainable digital projects, according to a report from a group of European policy thinkers, academics and company leaders. 

As the European Commission prepares to release plans next month for Horizon Europe’s successor programme, The European Way says that parts of it “show a lack of tangible results.”

“The EU is wasting a lot of money by channelling small amounts to very abstract projects,” said co-author Kai Zenner, head of office for the German European People’s Party MEP Axel Voss. 

Instead, research and innovation money should be used far more strategically, said Zenner, in areas such as quantum technology or biotechnology where the EU has a chance to lead. “Why not focus on those areas?” he said. 

The European Way, released last month, says that Europe urgently needs to wake up and stop relying on US digital technologies. 

“Public spending should focus much more on supporting the creation of commercially viable EU-sourced infrastructures that contribute to the EU’s long-term goals, not just on funding university research,” it says. 

The continent is a “digital colony,” it argues, reliant on US and other foreign firms not just for things such as search engines and cloud storage, but physical infrastructure too, such as data centres and undersea cables. 

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has apparently spooked Europeans that an unreliable US now has a chokehold over its digital future. 

Microsoft has reportedly cut off the email account of International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan, who is based in The Hague, after a Trump executive order threatened the court with sanctions for its investigation into Israeli war crimes. 

Some European governments are beginning to respond. Earlier this month, Denmark’s digitalisation minister said she would start to phase out Microsoft products at her ministry. 

Europe has gone through previous waves of hand-wringing about digital or technological sovereignty over the past decade, but with little concrete change. “It was really hot air, a lot of talk,” said Zenner. 

But now feels different, he said. “I do see a shift”. At a recent meeting of Germany’s Bitkom digital association, for example, “every company was saying, we need to diversify.” 

Trump, plus last year’s heavyweight report from former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, have triggered a turnaround in attitudes, Zenner said. 

Companies at Bitkom were now convinced it was “unacceptable” to just have only one source of software. “We would never allow it with other parts of our value chain to just have one supplier,” he said. 

Reallocate money

This urgent need for European digital alternatives means that Horizon Europe has to change too, says the report, which was authored by more than 30 policy thinkers, academics and company leaders. 

Money could be reallocated from underperforming parts of Horizon Europe to create a Digital Sovereignty Fund, it suggests. 

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For Zenner and his co-authors, Horizon funds numerous smaller projects but without a plan for how they might actually lead to a successful company, or sustainable not-for-profit, open-source digital tools. Currently, this is “not really the key question” when awarding money, said Zenner. 

“My concern is that so much money is spent on innovation instead of infrastructure,” said co-author Robin Berjon, deputy director of the InterPlanetary File System, a decentralised file sharing network.

“Even if we came up with incredible innovations from this funding, it would have no hope to succeed in the market because it would have to operate on captured [non-European dominated] infrastructure,” he said. 

Link up firms

Instead of frittering money away on small scale projects, it could be used to build up an Airbus-style European player in the digital field, linking up existing European firms, thinks Zenner. 

For example, he’s suggested building a coalition to create AI devices by joining up firms including Dutch semiconductor equipment specialist ASML, the UK’s ARM Holdings, and Siemens. 

But the Airbus model isn’t the only option, Zenner stressed. Joint ventures between companies could allow them to develop a common digital platform on which they offer competing services, he suggested. 

Europe shouldn’t necessarily try to ape US tech giants, argued Philipp Hacker, a professor of digital society at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), another co-author of the report.

He said he was sceptical of attempts to build a “European Google” or similar company. 

“Many of these efforts have struggled to gain traction in competitive global markets, and often fall short of their ambitions despite significant public investment,” he said. “Funding bodies should adopt a more critical stance when evaluating the actual market potential of such applied research.”

He added, however, that the report was not calling for money to be diverted from basic research.