News item | 12-12-2025 | 2:45 PM
At the proposal of State Secretary Van Marum of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Council of Ministers has approved the government’s new Vision on Digital Autonomy and Sovereignty. This vision indicates how the Dutch government maintains control over digitalization at a time when digital dependencies are increasing rapidly.
Dependencies
More and more crucial government tasks are digital: from taxes to healthcare. Our systems are now often dependent on a small number of (foreign) suppliers. These dependencies entail risks: outages, cyber attacks, geopolitical pressure. At the same time, citizens and companies must be able to trust that the digital government will always continue to work.
Autonomy
Digital autonomy means that the government can choose which technology we use and that we can switch if a supplier fails or does not meet requirements. The government must also have sufficient knowledge in-house to maintain control over its own ICT systems. It is also important that the government has control over the digital infrastructure that the government itself uses with services and products (digital sovereignty). So that the most sensitive data falls under Dutch or European legislation and public values — such as privacy, security and democracy — remain safeguarded.
State Secretary Van Marum: “It is not about doing everything ourselves, but about being able to choose and maintain control. We must be realistic: complete independence does not exist, but making smart choices does. The government wants to be open where possible, protect where necessary. Citizens and companies must be able to trust that the digital government will always continue to function, even in times of digital threats or international tensions.”
Instruments
The vision contains strategic building blocks and practical instruments with which this course is converted into action. Some important examples:
- Tighten cloud policy: secure storage of government data under European law.
- Bundling IT purchasing: one government can enforce better conditions from suppliers.
- Open standards and open source encourage lock-ins to prevent.
- Accelerate modernization of legacy systems to reduce risk.
- Investing in digital craftsmanship to increase our knowledge and capacity.
- Working together within Europe to build safe, reliable European alternatives.
With this vision, the government consciously chooses a course in which open standards, technological innovation and cooperation within the Netherlands and Europe go hand in hand. The vision, which was developed inter-administratively, is in line with the Dutch Digitalization Strategy in which digital resilience and autonomy of the government is one of the priorities. This also builds on the Digital Open Strategic Autonomy Agenda.
Europe
Internationally, the ambitions in this vision are in line with the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) Digital Community Goods. This consortium was formed from a collaboration between France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and focuses on strengthening European digital autonomy. This EDIC Digital Community Goods was officially launched in The Hague on Thursday and is chaired by the Netherlands. 9 EU member states are now affiliated. Member States are joining forces and jointly developing European solutions and services in the field of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurityoffice automation and social networks developed and scaled up.