EuroStack is often talked about as a single idea assuming there is a coherent European response to technological dependency. In practice, it is a contested concept, shaped by (at least) two distinct visions of how Europe should regain control over its digital future.
This article aims to disentangle these visions: to trace who is behind them, how they differ in their assumptions and approaches, and what they reveal about Europe’s broader struggle to move from diagnosing dependency to actually overcoming it.
Who are the ideators?
The Bria-Eurostack is led by Francesca Bria, together with Paul Timmers and Fausto Gernone. It is backed by a network of established institutions, most notably the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Stiftung Mercator, the Centre for European Policy Studies, and the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose—a mix of influential foundations, think tanks, and academic actors closely connected to European policy-making.
The Caffarra-Eurostack is led by Cristina Caffarra and emerged from a core group of economists, technologists, and policymakers, including Alexandra Geese, Kai Zenner, and Meredith Whittaker. It is backed by a coalition of over 300 European companies—mostly from the tech sector—with signatories such as Nextcloud and IONOS, alongside a few industrial players like Airbus—giving it a distinctly industry-driven character.
What is the core idea?
The Bria-Eurostack envisions a unified, sovereign digital infrastructure as the foundation of Europe’s strategic autonomy. It frames the Eurostack as a political “moonshot”—comparable to the Euro or Single Market—aimed at moving Europe from dependency to self-determination. More than a technical stack, it is a federated, value-driven framework designed to align digital infrastructure with democracy, privacy, and sustainability.
The Caffarra-Eurostack frames digital sovereignty as a pragmatic industrial mission to reduce dependency on foreign technology. It prioritizes “build mode” over regulation, focusing on developing competitive European capabilities in cloud, compute, and software. Its core logic is commercial: success depends on price and performance. The key lever is demand—mobilizing procurement to create markets, attract investment, and enable scale—led by industry and coordinated through models akin to Airbus.
What is their style?
The Bria-Eurostack is styled as a mission-driven “moonshot” that focusses on the ambition and the stakeholders in Bussels. Its defining feature is the consistent bridging of opposites: it presents itself as bold yet pragmatic (long-term vision paired with MVPs), Europe-first yet non-protectionist (strategic autonomy without isolation), unified yet decentralized (a common stack built in a federated way), and competitive yet compassionate (industrial strength aligned with social equity and the common good). Even its governance reflects this tension—positioned as an engine of disruption while still relying on structured, accountable institutions.
The Caffarra-Eurostack is defined by a sharp, industrial style that prioritizes clarity, speed, and action over consensus and deliberation. Its tone is direct, assertive, and often impatient with ambiguity, deliberately avoiding the layered language typical of Brussels policy discourse. Rather than seeking balance or reconciliation, it embraces a high-contrast framing that draws clear lines between viable and ineffective approaches. At its core, the style is pragmatic and commercially grounded—focused on execution, scale, and market realities—while positioning itself as a mobilizing force rather than a consensus-driven policy exercise.
What are the most representative quotes?
A defining rhetorical pattern of the Bria-Eurostack is the repeated use of “not just / more than” framing to expand its scope. The initiative is described as “more than a technological program”, “not just about technology”, and “more than infrastructure”—instead positioning itself as a political, economic, and societal project at once: "Together, we can build a future in which digitalization serves not as a source of division but as a force for the common good. ... we invite you to consider how this mapping and its recommendations can help spark innovations that are both competitive and compassionate."
The Caffarra-Eurostack speaks in a language of urgency and confrontation, using short, forceful statements to frame the situation as existential: Europe is a “digital colony,” a “vassal continent,” and “if we don’t build… we are toast.” This sense of crisis is paired with open contempt for alternative approaches—dismissed as “magical thinking” or “disquisitions on the sex of angels”—and a rejection of slow, abstract policy debates. Instead, the rhetoric relentlessly centers on action: “regulation cannot build,” “demand is the master lever,” and Europe must move into “build mode… now or never.” Vivid metaphors like “The Castle” further sharpen the contrast, portraying dependency as structural and inescapable without industrial-scale intervention.
What is the theory of change?
The Bria-Eurostack follows a mission-driven, state-enabled approach: Europe builds a unified digital stack (from chips to AI) and scales it through public investment and “Europe-first” procurement. This creates demand, consolidates fragmented markets, and enables startups to scale within the Single Market. As capabilities grow, Europe regains control over the value chain while embedding public values such as privacy and sustainability.
The Caffarra-Eurostack follows an industrial, demand-driven logic: Europe shifts to “build mode,” develops native capabilities in cloud, compute, and software, and organizes fragmented suppliers into integrated offerings. Demand is the key lever—“Buy European” procurement creates markets, attracts private capital, and enables scale. As firms become competitive, a self-reinforcing cycle of adoption and investment emerges.
What measures do they propose?
The Bria-Eurostack translates its vision into the following measures:
- Financial & market interventions: A €300 billion Sovereign Tech Fund combined with “Europe-first” procurement targets to create demand and scale European providers
- Common digital stack: Building core services across cloud, AI, chips, data, identity, and connectivity as a unified European infrastructure
- Agile execution: MVP-driven “EuroStack Challenges” to rapidly deploy and scale real-world use cases in sectors like health, mobility, and manufacturing
- Governance & principles: New oversight structures, open-source-first policies, and sustainability requirements (“green by design”)
The Caffarra-Eurostack translates its vision into the following measures:
- Public demand (“Buy European”): Binding procurement quotas (e.g. 25–30%) for European suppliers, strict eligibility criteria, multisourcing rules, and interoperability/no-lock-in requirements
- Private market activation (“Sell European”): Migration incentives, regulatory guidance to diversify away from hyperscalers, and active brokering between buyers and European providers
- Industrial organization: “Airbus-style” federation of suppliers, open-source prioritization, unified standards, and better visibility of European capabilities
- Capital & funding: Mobilizing private investment, targeted public funds, and recycling regulatory fines into sovereign tech
- Competition policy: Allowing consolidation and facilitating European exits to build scale
What is the institutional base?
The institutional base of the Bria-Eurostack is diffuse: it draws on a network of foundations, think tanks, and academic institutions, but is not anchored in a single entity. It resembles an informal inner circle (like the “Andenpakt”), held together by a shared narrative rather than a transformative organization.
The institutional base of the Caffarra-Eurostack is concrete and centralized. It is anchored in a not-for-profit foundation established in 2025, which serves as the organizational hub. It brings together a defined group of signatories—primarily European tech CEOs and industry actors from companies alongside economists and policy advocates.
What are they actually doing?
Given its diffuse, network-based structure, there is little evidence that the Bria-Eurostack operates as a distinct implementation vehicle. The participating institutions largely continue their existing work in research, policy advice, and advocacy—now framed under the Eurostack narrative if applicable.
The Caffarra-Eurostack focuses on three core activities: lobbying for “Buy European” rules in public procurement to redirect IT spending toward European providers; acting as a broker by matching customers with European tech firms and assembling integrated solutions; and mobilizing private investment by linking viable projects with capital, using real demand signals to make them investable.
What does success look like?
Success for the Bria-Eurostack is framed in a slightly vague fashion: moving Europe from technological dependency to strategic autonomy. It entails building competitive European tech industries, shifting from value extraction to value creation, and developing an integrated, interoperable digital infrastructure aligned with public values. Ultimately, success is a Europe that not only regulates but actively builds and governs its digital ecosystem.
Success for the Caffarra-Eurostack is defined as digital emancipation: gaining control over critical infrastructure and increasing Europe’s market share. This includes concrete numbers like redirecting around 30% of public IT spending (≈€21 billion annually) to European providers and reducing the €264 billion annual outflow from digital dependency. The goal is not decoupling, but raising Europe’s share from below 20% to roughly 30–40%—with adoption driven by commercial competitiveness and private investment.
How likely is success?
As neither the initiative nor the goals are well-defined, its chances of success appear low and high at the same time. fourtunately, one of Bria-EuroStack’s core strengths lies in its ability to translate factual tensions into persuasive narratives, hence it puts more emphasis on narrating itself as “strategic necessity” rather than bothering with execution questions. Looking at it as a political initiative, Bria has already succeeded by attracting significant attention.
The likelihood of success for the Caffarra-Eurostack is higher than in many previous initiatives, but remains uncertain. Strong momentum—driven by geopolitical shifts, a clear industrial focus, and a coalition of hundreds of tech companies—works in its favor. Key challenges persist, including limited participation from large industrial buyers, and the structural dominance of US providers. Ultimately, success depends on whether political momentum can be translated into real market demand i.e. contracts and large-scale adoption.
Summary
The two EuroStacks reflect a divide between narrative and execution. The Bria-version excels at agenda-setting and coalition-building with think tanks and institutions, yet remains abstract in implementation. Caffarra's version approaches the same problem as an industrial coordination challenge, with a more direct and commercially grounded tone, focusing on demand, contracts, and scale. However, it faces a structural asymmetry: while it seeks to coordinate European industry, it operates with limited organizational capacity and resources, competing against Big Tech backed by vast capital, partner networks, lobbying organizations and workforce scale.
