Europe Moves Fast on Digital Sovereignty: EDIC Launches, Netherlands Sets Vision

On December 12, 2025, something significant happened in The Hague. The Netherlands officially launched the Digital Commons EDIC (European Digital Infrastructure Consortium), bringing together nine EU member states in a coordinated effort to build sovereign digital infrastructure. The same week, the Dutch government announced its "Vision for Digital Autonomy and Sovereignty of Government"—a comprehensive blueprint for reducing dependency on foreign technology providers for critical government operations. This isn't just policy talk. It's a fundamental shift in how European governments think about technology control.

What's Happening in Europe

The Dutch government's new vision addresses a pressing vulnerability: too many critical government functions—from tax systems to healthcare—now depend on a small number of foreign technology vendors. When infrastructure fails, when cyberattacks occur, or when geopolitical tensions rise, these dependencies become risks that governments can no longer ignore.

Dutch State Secretary Van Marum framed it clearly:

It's not about doing everything ourselves, but being able to choose and maintain control. Complete independence doesn't exist, but making smart choices does. The government wants to be open where it can, protect where it must.

The EDIC framework is the implementation mechanism for this vision. It enables multi-country collaboration on digital infrastructure projects spanning artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity, office automation, and social networks. Nine EU countries have already joined the Digital Commons EDIC, with the Netherlands serving as chair.

The stated priorities include sharpening cloud policies to ensure data stays under European law, promoting open standards to prevent vendor lock-in, modernizing legacy systems, and building European alternatives through coordinated investment.

This isn't isolated to the Netherlands. It's part of a broader European Digital Decade strategy that recognizes digital autonomy as essential to sovereignty itself.

Why Communication Infrastructure Matters

When we talk about critical government infrastructure, we typically think of data centers, cloud platforms, and cybersecurity systems. Communication platforms rarely get the same attention—but they should.

Communication infrastructure is where government business actually happens. Policy discussions, citizen data exchanges, inter-agency coordination, emergency response, and sensitive diplomatic communications all flow through messaging and collaboration platforms. These aren't peripheral tools; they're the nervous system of modern government operations.

The vulnerability is clear: when your daily operations depend on platforms you don't control, you've created a dependency that can be exploited. Many governments currently run their internal communications on infrastructure hosted in foreign jurisdictions, subject to foreign laws, and operated by companies that could be compelled to provide access to data or discontinue service.

The EDIC framework explicitly includes "social networks" and "office automation" in its scope because European governments have recognized that communication platforms are critical infrastructure that requires the same sovereignty considerations as any other essential system.

What Sovereign Communication Actually Requires

Digital sovereignty isn't an abstract concept—it has specific technical requirements. At its core, sovereignty means control: control over where your data resides, who has access to it, and the ability to maintain operations regardless of external dependencies.

For communication infrastructure, this translates into a spectrum of deployment options, each offering different levels of control. Traditional cloud-hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models, where data lives on vendor-controlled servers in vendor-chosen jurisdictions, offer the least sovereignty. Regional cloud options provide more control, particularly when deployed on local cloud infrastructure within your jurisdiction and under local legal frameworks.

However, the highest level of sovereignty comes from on-premises deployment—infrastructure you own and operate within your own facilities, under your complete control and jurisdiction. For the most sensitive operations, air-gapped deployment provides maximum security: systems completely isolated from external networks, immune to remote access or interference.

The key is matching the deployment model to sovereignty requirements. Different government functions may warrant different approaches, but understanding where your data resides and who controls it remains fundamental to any sovereignty strategy.

This isn't about rejecting modern technology. It's about ensuring that the deployment model aligns with sovereignty requirements. Governments need the full functionality of contemporary collaboration platforms—real-time messaging, file sharing, video conferencing, integrations—but deployed in ways that respect their autonomy.

This is precisely why platforms like Rocket.Chat have seen increased adoption in government and public sector organizations worldwide. They're purpose-built for deployment models that respect sovereignty requirements while delivering the user experience and functionality that modern teams expect.

From Policy to Practice

The shift from policy vision to operational reality requires organizations that can actually deliver on sovereignty promises. This means more than marketing claims about security—it means proven deployment capabilities.

Governments implementing sovereign communication architectures are deploying platforms that can run entirely on-premises, within their own data centers and under their complete control. For classified operations or sensitive diplomatic communications, they're implementing air-gapped systems that operate in complete isolation from external networks.

Rocket.Chat serves government organizations worldwide precisely because it's designed for these deployment scenarios. Agencies can maintain complete control over their data, ensure compliance with local regulations, customize the platform to meet specific security requirements, and operate with full independence from external providers. The platform meets rigorous government compliance standards while providing the modern collaboration features that users demand.

The practical advantage isn't theoretical. When geopolitical tensions escalate, when cyber threats emerge, or when regulatory requirements shift, organizations with sovereign communication infrastructure can continue operations without disruption. They're not dependent on foreign providers' decisions, not subject to data access requests under foreign laws, and not vulnerable to service discontinuation.

This is what the Dutch vision means in practice: governments choosing their technology based on sovereignty requirements, not just features and pricing.

A Global Movement

The European focus on digital sovereignty isn't isolated. Similar initiatives are emerging globally as governments recognize that technological dependency creates strategic vulnerability. What's happening in Europe through the EDIC framework is part of a larger reassessment of how nations think about critical infrastructure.

For organizations evaluating communication platforms today, the question has evolved beyond What features does it offer? to Does this deployment model align with our sovereignty requirements?

The EDIC launch and the Dutch government's vision make clear that sovereignty considerations are now central to technology decisions at the highest levels of government.

The communication infrastructure you choose today is a sovereignty decision. Rocket.Chat provides government-grade communication platforms designed specifically for on-premises and air-gapped deployment scenarios, enabling organizations to maintain full control over their critical communications infrastructure.