Maarten de Rijke

Digital Sovereignty and the Parliamentary Elections

Posted on by mdr

(This is a slightly edited automatic translation of an opinion piece that originally appeared on November 18, 2023 on the ICAI web site.)

Inequality and social security play a major role in the run-up to the House of Representatives elections. This special emphasis leads to navel gazing: the Netherlands is “closing the curtains” according to NRC. Navel gazing also characterizes the plans for knowledge and innovation of the parties that will probably form a new cabinet, plans that come across to NWO chairman Marcel Levi “as provincial.”

Anyone who really cares about social security and reducing inequality for generations to come would do well to pull back the curtains and work on digital sovereignty . AI is a system technology and will be in every corner of society in the short term. AI will therefore touch every aspect of the life of every Dutch person. Increasingly, a handful of non-European parties dominate this technology, with very limited control, largely absent participation, and accountable only to financial stakeholders. Since its inception, ICAI has worked to strengthen our digital sovereignty, that is, our ability to act independently in the digital world.

Digital sovereignty is partly determined by the following, mainly “soft” factors: 

  1. Talent: developing modern AI requires technical talent; talent is scarce; there is a global struggle to attract, train, and retain that talent. The Netherlands is lagging behind in delivering sufficient technical talent. 
  2. Computing infrastructure: without computing capacity to train, fine-tune and deploy models, any knowledge development and innovation is doomed to failure. The Netherlands is lagging behind in terms of computing infrastructure for AI. 
  3. Data: Modern AI requires large amounts of data to train models. The Netherlands, and more generally the EU, is increasingly becoming a data colony and is therefore lagging behind when it comes to reasonable principles of data ownership, both intellectually and economically. 
  4. Open and shared ownership: knowledge sharing and open-source initiatives should be the norm in the public space, for accountability, for quality, for transparency, and for independence. The Netherlands is lagging behind in the adoption of knowledge sharing and open source, and especially in actively pursuing shared, open source AI solutions. 
  5. Regulation: The Netherlands, together with the EU, has put a lot of effort into regulations surrounding AI in recent years. There is a serious risk that the heavy AI regulations that are now underway will mainly play into the hands of the incumbent technical superpowers. The Netherlands, and the EU more generally, is lagging behind in creating frameworks that facilitate the creation, testing and continued growth of independent digital alternatives.

How do the parties view digital sovereignty and the five dimensions mentioned above? We have gone through the election manifestos (the “programs”) of the six largest parties (according to the Peilingwijzer, November 15, 2023): VVD, NSC, GL/PvdA, PVV, BBB, and D66.

The VVD wants to focus on strategic sovereignty in an EU context, is mainly focused on protecting the internal market (VVD, p. 18), and sees the development of our “sea cable network” as an action to strengthen our sovereignty (VVD, p. .39). NSC mentions “strategic autonomy” in general, and also in the digital world, but does not go beyond drawing up and enforcing rules of the game for the tech industry (NSC, p. 61). GL/PvdA discusses strategic autonomy a number of times, also in the sense of digital autonomy, and reports that strategic autonomy requires technological power (GL/PvdA, p. 16), advocating technology support, development, and regulation in EU context. The PVV repeatedly talks about sovereignty in its program, but in no way about digital sovereignty. Strategic autonomy appears in the BBB’s program (BBB, p. 122) but not in the digital sense. D66 discusses strategic autonomy in general and also pays attention to digital autonomy in particular, where the party advocates investments (D66, p. 196). Despite the importance of digital sovereignty for the security of future generations, the subject is hardly on the agendas of the parties that will most likely soon be in charge.

We don’t give up and dig a little deeper into the programs of the parties mentioned, looking for positions on the factors that contribute to digital sovereignty: talent, computing infrastructure, data, open source and knowledge sharing, and regulations, all in the context of AI. Table 1 summarizes which party pays positive attention to which factor.

TalentComputeDataOpen & sharingRegulation
VVD✓✓✓✓
NSC✓✓✓
GL/PvdA✓✓
PVV
BBB✓✓
D66✓✓✓✓
Table 1: Which election manifestos pay positive attention to which of the factors that contribute to digital sovereignty?

The VVD recognizes that there is an international battle going on around talent (VVD, p. 15) but proposes to first put on the brakes when it comes to foreign talent (VVD, p. 10). NSC recognizes the great importance of the availability of talent for innovation (NSC, p. 40), but only opens the door selectively (NSC, p. 25). D66 is explicitly committed to expanding training capacity in AI (D66, p. 198). Regarding data, the VVD emphasizes fair use of data (VVD, p. 73). BBB and D66 take more strategic positions around data, one mainly focused on removing restrictions (BBB, p. 48), the other focused on transparency and sovereignty (D66, p. 195, 197). Open source and knowledge sharing are embraced by a number of parties and are seen as something that should be promoted; the VVD focuses mainly on “translating” knowledge “to the economy and society” (VVD, p. 35), without indicating how we acquire the knowledge to be translated and who will actually do the “translation.” GL/PvdA connects knowledge sharing and open source to the democratization of software and hardware (GL/PvdA, p. 69), while NSC advocates regional cooperation between the business community, knowledge institutions, and decentralized authorities: “[in] addition to financing, this is mainly about joint commitment to strategy, internationalization and digitalization” (NSC, p. 41). Regulations surrounding AI are seen by the majority of parties as a means to increase our digital sovereignty. 

The picture is pretty bleak. The (centre) right parties certainly lack a broader perspective on the factors in Table 1. Unfortunately, other infrastructural factors that should facilitate our digital sovereignty are also poorly represented in the programs. Regarding digital infrastructure, the VVD is stuck with the aforementioned “sea cable network.” Where are constructive plans for data centers and computer centers? We read that the Netherlands “is not a paradise for […] data centers” (GL/PvdA, p. 11) and that we are “critical of adding new data centers to the Dutch landscape” (NSC, p. 57). There is awareness that the limits of the electricity grid have been reached, with some references to the National Network Congestion Action Program, but here too, concrete short-term action plans are conspicuous by their absence: “[a] State Coordinator for grid congestion clearly shows, among other things, how the waiting times per area to develop” (BBB, p. 116) and “we turn relieving the burden on the power grid into a revenue model” (VVD, p. 57). Is there no sense of urgency?

Anyone who wants to tackle the problem of social security, especially for future generations, would do well to invest in digital sovereignty. Stop navel gazing. Focus on talent, on computing capacity, data facilities, on open source and knowledge sharing, on regulations, and on digital and electrical infrastructure. These factors all require an open mind and joint actions between the industry, knowledge institutions, and governmental and societal organizations. Joint actions that transcend our national borders. Open the curtains and get started!

Maarten de Rijke

The election manifestos consulted for this opinion piece:

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