Closing the Sovereignty Gap: The IT Aftermarket as a Pillar of Europe’s Digital Infrastructure

Strengthening Strategic Autonomy, Open Markets, Competitiveness, and Sustainability in Enterprise ICT.

Free ICT Europe and its paper to join the discussions regarding EU Digital Sovereignty. It highlights a critical but often overlooked layer of autonomy: the ability to maintain, repair and extend the life of our ICT estate. Download your copy.

Today, a real sovereignty gap exists for both the enterprise hardware and software layers. These remain largely dominated by non EU vendors. Shortened support lifecycles, restrictive licensing and technical locks can force premature replacements and create structural dependency.

True sovereignty means being able to manage digital infrastructure without lockins, coercion or forced upgrades. The independent IT aftermarket provides that alternative channel. By reducing dependency and OEM control, it helps organisations keep mission critical systems operational well beyond official end of support.

If the EU wants sovereignty to be more than a slogan, it must make it operational. That includes recognising and enabling a robust IT aftermarket.

Without it, Europe risks replacing one dependency with another.

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