France ditches US giants Microsoft Teams and Zoom in favor of 'sovereign platform' / 'Dependencies can be used against us'

French civil servants will be obliged to use exclusively the national platform “Visio” until 2027, after the Government in Paris decided to ban the American giants Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet in favor of “sovereign platforms”, capable of guaranteeing data security within the state administration, according to Politico.eu

The decision is part of a broad strategy to relocate administrative activities to domestic technology solutions, reflecting Europe's growing concern over massive technological dependence on US services.

The Prime Minister's Office has prepared a notification asking civil servants to use Visio, a software created by the Interministerial Digital Authority (DINUM). The application runs on the secure infrastructure of the French company Outscale, thus ensuring internal control over data.

The official directive banning American platforms will be made public in the coming days, a spokesperson for DINUM (the Authority responsible for the digital transformation of the French state) confirmed to Politico.

The measure comes in addition to statements recently made by the Minister for State Reform, David Amiel, who confirmed France's objective to complete the transition to a 100% indigenous videoconferencing solution by 2027.

“The aim is to abandon the use of non-European solutions and to guarantee the security and privacy of public electronic communications, relying on a powerful and sovereign instrument,” said Amiel.

Last year, France forced civil servants to ditch WhatsApp and Telegram and instead use Tchap, a secure messaging service designed exclusively for civil servants.

Currently, the Visio platform is already active for around 40,000 users in ministries and elite institutions such as the French National Center for Scientific Research.

DINUM's objective is to rapidly expand the network to 250,000 employees. To guarantee the success of the transition, the institution will monitor data traffic and plans to block technical access to external video platforms through the state's internet network in the coming months.

“Addictions can be used against us”

This position of France is supported at the highest European level by Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice-president of the European Commission, who warned on Tuesday at the event “Europe's Race for Digital Leadership” that Europe has reached a critical point in terms of its technological autonomy.

Virkkunen pointed out that in the past year, it has become clear how dangerous it is for Europe to depend on a single country or a single corporation for essential technologies.

“In these times dependencies can be used against us,” the European official said, suggesting that digital autonomy is not just an economic issue, but one of national security, writes Politico.

Virkkunen believes that the EU is at a decisive moment when it needs to develop its own solutions in order not to be at the hands of giants outside the continent.

Virkkunen's statements come in an extremely tense transatlantic context. Relations have been marked by recent tensions after President Donald Trump's claims of a possible takeover of Greenland prompted European leaders to consider possible responses.

Although Henna Virkkunen avoided naming the United States directly as a threat, she cited the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine as critical moments that exposed the continent's major “vulnerabilities.”

The European official concluded that while the US remains an essential strategic ally, it is imperative for Europe's security and competitiveness to develop its own technological capabilities, thus reducing the risk of total dependence on external partners.

The Executive Vice-President of the Commission for Technological Sovereignty supported the idea of ​​using public contracts as a means of supporting the development of European companies and technological products.

“We should use public procurement, of course, in a much more active way to also boost our own growing technologies in the European Union,” she said when asked about her stance on plans to “buy European products”.

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