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On 3 June 2026, the European Commission announced the European Technological Sovereignty Package a landmark set of legislative and policy measures designed to fundamentally reshape Europe's position in the global technology landscape. The package focuses on four key areas:
- securing the semiconductor base for Europe's AI ambition through the Chips Act 2.0;
- unlocking the potential of Europe's cloud and AI capacity through the Cloud and AI Development Act;
- strengthening digital autonomy through the open source strategy;
- digitalising Europe's energy system while ensuring sustainable digitalisation through the strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector.
Together, these measures form what the European Commission describes as a turning point in the EU's approach to technology.
European Commission's 2026 Work Programme formally announced a package of digital sovereignty measures, which were then consolidated into the Technological Sovereignty Package. This new package helps Europe move quickly toward becoming an AI continent. It protects Europe’s ability to control its own digital future and works together with other existing plans such as the Competitiveness Compass and the Economic Security Strategy.
The Chips Act 2.0
The first and most structurally important legislative proposal is the Chips Act 2.0, which replaces the original European Chips Act, which entered into force in 2023 and created the initial framework. Having in mind that chips are the third most traded product in the world, the proposal focuses on Europe’s ability to design, produce, or package advanced chips. The Chips Act 2.0 will help grow Europe’s capacity in cutting-edge semiconductor technologies, boost supply and demand, improve conditions for investment and competitiveness, increase resilience and reduce dependencies.
The Cloud and AI Development Act: Sovereignty in Digital Infrastructure
The second legislative proposal is the Cloud and AI Development Act (“CADA”). The CADA has three main goals: supporting efforts to bring the next generation of advanced and sustainable cloud and AI technologies, accelerating the conditions needed to build data centres across the EU with a focus on those that support key public services, and creating a single EU wide system for measuring cloud and AI independence, along with a way for the public sector to adopt these technologies.
The CADA will strengthen the EU’s data centre capacity, while also working alongside the Apply AI strategy to boost the adoption. On the sovereignty topic, the Act introduces four assurance levels for cloud services and requires Member States to conduct sovereignty risk assessments. Based on the proposal. the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act is expected to make a meaningful difference for several beneficiaries, including the public sector, the European cloud and AI ecosystem and citizens.
The Open Source Strategy
Open source forms the foundation of much of the world’s digital infrastructure, including operating systems, cloud technologies, web platforms and AI frameworks.
Alongside the two legislative proposals, the European Commission also adopted a Communication on European Tech Sovereignty accompanied by the EU Open Source Strategy a non-legislative but important initiative. The Open Source Strategy aims to grow open source alternatives in priority areas, invest in skills, start-ups and digital infrastructure, and encourage greater use of open source in public administrations.
The Open Source Strategy covers the entire chain from research and development all the way through to market uptake, further deployment, and the long-term maintenance and governance of critical open source components. It also helps reduce dependence on non-EU technologies and increases control over critical digital infrastructure, including both software and hardware systems.
The four main objectives of the strategy are to leverage open source for technological sovereignty, strengthen and promote a vibrant open source ecosystem, encourage open and interoperable digital ecosystems for public administrations, including EU institutions and to strengthen digital standards and international outreach.
The Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the energy sector
The fourth part of the package aims to ensure that data centres are integrated into Europe’s energy system, accelerate the deployment of digital and AI solutions, and build AI models for the energy sector that are both independent and secure. This Strategic Roadmap sets out measures for a digitalized EU energy system in which AI will help deliver secure, clean and competitive energy for all consumers.
The Strategic Roadmap is structured around three pillars:
- Pillar I addresses the sustainable integration of data centres into the energy system,
- Pillar II sets out measures to deploy digital and AI solutions across the energy system, and
- Pillar III addresses the data governance framework needed to enable smart energy services and AI at scale.
To support delivery of the Roadmap by 2030, the Commission will convene an annual Energy Digitalisation Forum from 2026 to review progress, identify barriers, share good practices and address emerging developments that may require further action.
Next Steps
The Technological Sovereignty Package presented by the European Commission represents the next step in achieving technological sovereignty.
These legislative proposals will be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
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