Germany Leads New European Digital Sovereignty Index, But Report Warns of Pervasive Weaknesses

Paris – September 4, 2025 – A groundbreaking new report released today, the European Digital Resilience Index (EDRIX), delivers a critical, data-driven assessment of the EU's escalating digital dependency. While Germany emerges as the top-ranked member state (EDRIX score: 7.80 out of 10), the report issues a stark warning: Europe's reliance on non-European technology is not merely an economic drain, but a pervasive strategic failure threatening the very foundation of its sovereignty and citizen privacy.

The report’s creation is driven by two urgent crises. The first is economic: a €264 billion annual outflow to the US tech sector, as quantified by the recent Asterès/Cigref report. This massive economic drain is compounded by the collapse of the old transatlantic alliance, where the United States now openly wields its technological and trade dominance as a geopolitical weapon, directly challenging Europe's regulatory autonomy and strategic independence.

A key revelation from the EDRIX data is the alarming and widespread reliance of core public institutions on US-based digital infrastructure. The analysis shows that the official websites for the governments of Estonia, Ireland, and Malta are entirely hosted in the US, while the offices of the French President, the Danish Monarch, and the capital city of Helsinki also rely on US-controlled infrastructure. Furthermore, email services for key public offices in Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden are managed by US providers, exposing sensitive public and citizen data to foreign legal jurisdictions like the US CLOUD Act and creating significant risks to the confidentiality of official information.

"Even for the leading nations in our rankings, this is not a time for triumphalism," stated Dr. Stefane Fermigier, the author of the EDRIX report. "Despite years of 'Open Source first' legislation, real-world adoption of sovereign alternatives remains stubbornly low, with Linux desktops holding just 3.7% market share and 'sovereign browsers' only 17% in Europe—in both cases less than the US figures. Our index is designed to expose these deep structural weaknesses and serve as an urgent call for decisive action from every European capital."

The report dissects performance across five pillars—Public Policy, Developer Ecosystem, Grassroots Adoption, Private Sector Digital Resilience, and Public Sector Digital Resilience—revealing a complex picture:

Policy-to-Practice Gap: Countries with top-tier Public Policy, including Germany (EDRIX score: 7.80) and France (6.64), still show significant gaps in Grassroots Adoption and Developer Ecosystem strength, indicating that on-paper strategies are not yielding sufficient real-world impact.
Implementation Champions, but Fragile: The Czech Republic (6.89) leads in Private and Public Sector Digital Resilience, showcasing strong implementation, yet its overall resilience is hampered by a moderate developer base.
Untapped Talent: Nations like Ireland (3.10), despite a low overall rank, boast a top-five Developer Ecosystem, highlighting a critical disconnect between human capital and effective national digital strategy.

The EDRIX and the accompanying European Open Technology Readiness Index (EOTRIX), which focuses on Open Source policies and adoption, provide the indispensable data framework to guide the industrial policy necessary to build a resilient, sovereign "EuroStack". This requires an immediate, concerted effort to reverse Europe's slide towards "digital vassalage" and safeguard its economic future and fundamental values.

About the European Digital Resilience Index (EDRIX)

The EDRIX is a composite index that provides a holistic measure of a nation's ability to create, deploy, and utilize technology independently. It synthesizes metrics across five distinct data pillars: Public Policy, Developer Ecosystem, Grassroots Adoption, Private Sector Digital Resilience, and Public Sector Digital Resilience. First published in September 2025, it will be updated periodically.

The full report, including detailed methodology and per-country analysis, is available at: edrix.eu

Contact

Stefane Fermigier, creator of the EDRIX
email: sf@fermigier.com