Steven Maijoor on Europe's digital autonomy and resilience

Steven Maijoor (DNB) presented findings from a joint DNB/AFM report on Europe’s digital dependence and urged both immediate preparedness and longer-term investment to build European IT capabilities and resilience.

• Main announcement/action: The DNB/AFM report warns of systemic risks from concentration on a few hyperscalers and calls for near-term preparation (scenario rehearsals, testing whole chains, retaining encryption keys, multi-vendor strategies) and for DNB/AFM to facilitate these efforts. It states independence is not currently attainable and emphasizes practical mitigations while building capacity.
• Background and details: The speech outlines four possible digital scenarios for Europe, highlights DORA (entered into force January 2025) as an emerging legal protective measure, recommends joint testing, aligning specifications, purchase guarantees, and investment via the savings and investment union, and suggests considering a cross-sector European cloud supervisor in due course.