A Quick Guide to EU Digital Sovereignty

Abel Verweg
July 21, 2025
minute read

Digital sovereignty is the idea that enterprises control the software, data, and hardware that drive the business. The less sovereignty an enterprise has, the more is left in the hands of providers and third parties.

The idea of European digital sovereignty isn’t new. It’s been in the public discussion at least since 2021.

IT leaders across the EU should already be thinking about it. But it’s not as simple as snapping fingers or flipping a switch to get there. With a constantly changing landscape and many enterprises looking at tech stacks with many potential global influences, it’s critical to understand the factors and the questions to ask.

Why digital sovereignty matters

Picture yourself as a star cyclist in the Tour de France. You’ve sourced great parts, you’ve done your recon rides and planned. Your team’s demolished the Peloton, you’re screaming toward the finish, and your chain snaps 100 meters from the finish. You skid out of control, and all is lost. It turns out the chain was somehow overlooked and gave way. One weak point cost everything.

Digital sovereignty is all about controlling and minimizing the factors that put you at risk. The current landscape has many risks:

Applications can stop working
Your data can be exposed
Your customers’ data can be exposed
Loss of agility and flexibility
…and on and on.

The longer you wait, the more resources you must devote, meaning fewer resources for your business goals.

All these factors tie together, and fixing one may open up risks elsewhere.

In a broad sense, digital sovereignty concerns control, trust, flexibility, and the ability to host software development (and all related aspects and data) in the EU.

There’s a lot to tackle, though. Understanding the different aspects helps you better categorize, prioritize, and plan. Let’s discuss the pieces and how they fit together.

Data sovereignty: Meet and exceed standards

Where your data is processed and stored is critical. There are several reasons for this, both tangible and intangible.

Regulations: With GDPR being in place for several years, most enterprises are aware of the need and ready for it. But EU regulations aren’t the only factor. Laws like the US CLOUD Act allow US authorities to access data stored by US-based cloud providers, even if that data is physically in the EU. That creates potential legal conflict risks and GDPR issues.
Data residency and control: You need to know and control where your data is physically stored, full stop. This is even more critical in highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare, or government.
Vendor lock-in: Foreign hyperscalers have long dominated the space, but now they potentially introduce sovereignty risk. When laws change anywhere, they impact EU organizations, which then have to react quickly. Sovereign cloud strategies aim to mitigate.
Trust and reputation: This can tie into regulations like GDPR, but the baseline expectation is that enterprises protect EU citizen data and are responsible for its usage. Breaches can lead to not only penalties but also a loss of reputation.
Future flexibility: In an increasingly AI-focused world, your data has never been more important. Successful AI usage needs reliable data.

Simply covering today isn’t enough. You need to understand what meets the standard, what exceeds the standard, and what’s possible. GDPR and this push for digital sovereignty underscores that your enterprise needs flexibility above almost anything else.

What cloud options do your vendors provide? Do they have their own cloud? Where are the nodes? Do they support third-party clouds? What about the ability to allow you a private cloud just for you?

Operational sovereignty: Where is your SDLC?

Operational sovereignty is the ability to control the processes, procedures, and personnel involved in the SDLC.

Even if you’re extremely risk-averse, and your data is completely clean, you’re not out of the woods. If your DevOps are running through other services, you’re still facing a big risk of being dependent on parties that you don’t control. That’s why you need operational sovereignty.

To be clear, this includes having your platform power the SDLC hosted in the EU. So your DevOps, monitoring, , collaboration capabilities, and more. To take that even deeper, think about your access management, audits, logs, and API suite.

Everything matters and you have to decide on your priorities and trade-offs. You probably don’t want total sovereignty because you need to do everything yourself. But when looking at non-EU based vendors, you have to weigh the potential risks.

Think of it this way: if your services are managed by owners in non-EU countries, you run the risk of that information being read and understood from the outside. EU-based vendors help lessen that risk.

Technological sovereignty: All the pieces matter

How much do you know about and understand what makes up your software and where those pieces are located? Answering that is the key to technological sovereignty. This represents control over the underlying components and standards used to build your intellectual property and software.

Portability: Where are your components stored? A provider’s cloud? Third-party? On-premises?
Openness and extensibility: Are you able to reuse components across different solutions? How flexible can you be?
Visibility and governance: How good are your insights into your stack? Do you know what your components are? What do they work with? What are third-party dependencies?

With SaaS, often you don’t have control over what is in your software. In other words, buying solutions without ensuring technological sovereignty is a path to big problems.

For example, if a SaaS system does something like push emails, provides maps or directions for users, or lots of other things, you’re likely bound to the vendor’s setup. This may also include pushed updates. That’s a lot of touchpoints that are out of your control.

Take back control

Let’s go back to our bicycle analogy one more time. Will having every piece of your machine and your strategy guarantee the yellow jersey? Of course not. But having that kind of control allows you to aim toward better outcomes than just relying on others and hoping for the best.

You need a plan of action that will allow you to grow and scale securely and reliably. Putting your digital sovereignty on the back burner exposes you to risk and short- and long-term instability.

Your data, your tools, your technologies, your software: Where are they? Who is responsible for governance? Who has access?

The conversations are more complicated than ever, but Mendix can help you solve for them and more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “digital sovereignty” mean for organizations in the EU?

Digital sovereignty means that EU organizations retain full control over their data, technology, and digital infrastructure. It ensures that data is stored, processed, and governed according to EU laws, protecting against foreign access and ensuring compliance with regulations like GDPR. This is especially important when using cloud platforms, where control over data location, access, and ownership is critical.
Where will my data be stored if I use Mendix or similar platforms?

With Mendix, your data is stored in the cloud region you select when deploying your app. Regions include locations across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Mendix runs on trusted cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and SAP, ensuring compliance with local data residency and privacy regulations. You can also choose on-premises or private cloud hosting for complete control over data location. In the EU specifically, Mendix also provides SchwarzIT.
How does Mendix support GDPR compliance and data privacy?

Mendix supports GDPR compliance and data privacy by providing built-in tools for secure data handling, access control, encryption, and audit logging. The platform enables developers to implement privacy-by-design principles and ensures data is stored and processed in accordance with EU regulations. Cloud deployment portability of the software developed provides flexibility. Compliance, however, depends on how each application is built and configured.
What are the risks to EU enterprises of not being sovereign?

Without digital sovereignty, organizations risk losing control over their data and becoming vulnerable to foreign laws, unauthorized access, and regulatory non-compliance. This can lead to GDPR violations, legal exposure under laws like the U.S. CLOUD Act, and loss of trust from customers and partners. It also limits strategic autonomy and increases dependency on non-EU tech providers.