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Nearly three-quarters of European Union institutions route their email through servers operated by U.S. companies, according to research released Wednesday by Dutch public broadcaster NOS, raising concerns over the bloc’s digital sovereignty.
The findings come as the European Commission has increasingly emphasized the need to reduce Europe’s dependence on foreign technology providers, according to the broadcaster.
The European Commission itself uses email services provided by U.S. companies, while the European Defense Agency, several financial market regulators and EU bodies responsible for counterterrorism and anti-money laundering also use Microsoft for email services.
The European Central Bank uses another U.S.-based email service, the report said.
NOS said the European Commission did not respond to questions about where its email data is physically stored.
By contrast, the European Parliament, Europol and the Court of Justice of the European Union do not use U.S.-based email servers, according to the report.
Dutch Member of the European Parliament Bart Groothuis told the broadcaster that email services used by EU institutions must remain reliable because sensitive information regularly passes through them.
“This is a service that must always work and sensitive information regularly passes through it, so control must be kept in European hands,” Groothuis said.
He added that Europe should avoid becoming technologically dependent on a single country.
MEP Kim van Sparrentak also argued that EU institutions should consider moving such services within the bloc.
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