2 days ago
Danish cities drop Microsoft over concerns about Trump and US Big Tech
Two of Denmark's biggest municipalities are ending their use of Microsoft systems in the latest move by European governments away from US Big Tech companies.
Henrik Appel Espersen, the chairman of Copenhagen's audit committee, told newspaper Politiken that the council is making the decision to move away from Microsoft Office programmes due to the economy and the "monopoly-like" control of the company.
Plus, the foreign policy situation with US President Donald Trump has made the problem "more topical," Espersen added.
The same decision was made in Aarhus, Denmark's second-biggest municipality, where, according to the newspaper, a German system has already replaced Microsoft technology.
Euronews Next contacted both municipalities to independently verify local reporting.
The reported moves from local governments in Denmark follows a public debate in the Netherlands that saw the Dutch parliament approve a series of motions earlier this year to build a digital cloud and reduce its dependence on US cloud technology.
There are concerns from experts who previously told Euronews Next that the Trump administration could either compel tech companies to provide the US with Dutch data or force them to no longer provide cloud services to Europe, which could cause massive disruptions to public services.
The debate on US Big Tech influence has been going on for some time in Denmark, based on the results of an expert panel looking into their influence.
The Danish expert group on tech giants released a report in December 2024 that called for Big Tech alternatives in Europe to "be able to emerge and grow large".
"No one should be forced to use the services of tech giants to get information and participate in social, cultural, and democratic communities," the report said.
It also asked for an "overview" of the tech giants' influence on digital infrastructure in Denmark, saying that the public sector and education systems should not be "dependent" on the services of tech giants.
"We need to fence in the tech giants," Morten Bodskov, Denmark's minister of business and industry, said in a statement at the time.
"If we only use their solutions, it makes our society extremely vulnerable in a world that is changing with pressure from great powers, geopolitical tensions, and a technology race. That is why we must develop our own solutions".
Euronews Next followed up with the panel of experts and the Danish government to see whether this inquiry has been started or promised but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.
Another alternative for Denmark, the Netherlands, and other states concerned about the influence of US Big Tech companies is EU-wide initiatives that are in the works.
The European Commission is holding public consultations until July 3 on the future of cloud legislation in the bloc to "address Europe's gap in cloud and AI infrastructure capacity".
The act will eventually address research and innovation to accelerate data centres for cloud and AI, private investment in sustainable cloud and AI capacity, and increasing the "secure processing capacity" of EU-based cloud providers.
Mario Draghi's 2024 report on the state of Europe's competitiveness noted that the bloc has to "enhance technological infrastructure and reduce dependencies" on non-EU cloud service providers.
On March 18, 1967, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon struck a reef off the coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, spilling 100,000 tonnes of crude oil into the English Channel.
Beaches in southern England, the French region of Brittany, and Guernsey in the Channel Islands were submerged in thick sludge.
More than 15,000 seabirds were killed, and the spill caused innumerable long-term damages to the marine environment.
The Torrey Canyon disaster was the first major oil spill in European waters. It marked a turning point in the way people interacted with oceans, revealing how vulnerable marine ecosystems are to human-induced threats.
To mark World Oceans Day on June 8, Euronews Tech Talks talked to two ocean experts to better comprehend the state of our oceans and the high and low-tech innovations that can help protect them.
Over the past four decades, global plastic production has more than quadrupled, yet recycling has failed to keep pace, with rates remaining below 10 per cent.
Simon Bernard is the CEO and co-founder of Plastic Odyssey, a project dedicated to tackling ocean plastic pollution.
Bernard and a group of researchers embarked on a tour around the world aboard a research vessel to explore the best solutions for reducing plastic pollution.
"The idea of a research vessel is to be a scientific platform to study, do research, and development... The vessel acts as a laboratory, so for example, the aft is dedicated to recycling with various machines used to recycle plastic, test different solutions and technologies, and train local entrepreneurs," Bernard explained to Euronews.
Plastic Odyssey has been sailing for two and a half years. During the journey, the crew stops for three weeks in locations affected by plastic pollution, meets the locals, institutions, and entrepreneurs to learn about their solutions, and helps support them.
"That's quite shocking to realise that there is no pristine environment anymore, because plastic pollution has impacted all the places," said Bernard.
Throughout the Plastic Odyssey's journey, Bernard has met many people tackling plastic pollution and has been impressed by the cleverness of the simplest solutions.
"We've visited maybe 150 factories and initiatives, and what's most interesting to us is the ingenuity and the use of low-tech solutions," he said.
"We met a guy in Lebanon who made the equivalent of a food delivery app but for waste connection... and I'm thinking about Silvio in Colombia who was building houses out of plastic waste," Bernard said.
While plastic pollution is a visible threat to marine ecosystems, oceans are also damaged by hazards that are much harder to detect, like chemical pollutants.
Researcher Anneliese Hodge from the University of Plymouth is studying these complex pollutants, and one of her most recent studies focuses on sunscreen.
The most harmful components of sunscreen are its UV filters designed to block, absorb, or reflect the sun's ultraviolet rays.
"A recent estimation has suggested that approximately 10 million tonnes of UV filters are produced annually for the global market, of which an estimated 6,000 to 14,000 tonnes are released into coral reef zones alone annually," Hodge told Euronews. "So this is quite a widespread issue," she continued.
Hodge explained that UV filters in sunscreen can affect marine ecosystems at a molecular, cellular, individual, and community level. For instance, sunscreen can damage the DNA of marine organisms and cause coral bleaching.
Despite the need for further research into this topic, Hodge highlighted several potential solutions to reduce the threats sunscreen poses to marine environments.
Among them is the encapsulation of UV filters in biodegradable capsules that activate only upon contact with the skin.
In addition, Hodge cited the possibility of reducing UV filters and instead using Sun Protection Factor (SPF) boosters, specialised ingredients that could replace UV filters.
She also pointed to the introduction of some regulations to make corporations reduce the UV filters or ban the use of certain products.
