Microsoft likes to boast about its solution for sovereignty in Europe and Belgium, but can it back that up? The French and many German authorities are showing Microsoft the door. In Belgium, things remain quiet.
In a major interview in Trends, Barbara Van Den Haute, the former head of Digitaal Vlaanderen and, for the past few years, head of the public sector, claims that there has not yet been ‘a single data transfer to the United States. Zero!’ IT expert Jan Guldentops, who specialises in open source and security, refutes this: ‘That is a baseless statement which she cannot guarantee. After all, every request is accompanied by a so-called ‘gag order’. Microsoft is legally bound to maintain confidentiality, so at best she simply doesn’t know, and if she does know, she is not allowed to tell you.’ During a hearing in the French Senate in June 2025, Microsoft’s legal director Anton Carniaux admitted, incidentally, that the company cannot guarantee the data sovereignty of European customers. The company confirmed under oath that it is obliged to hand over data if the US government requests it via the CLOUD Act, even if that data is stored in Europe.
According to Barbara Van Den Haute, the so-called ‘kill switch’ – whereby the US government could shut down a software service – does not exist. Jan Guldentops: ‘One Executive Order from the White House and the kill switch is in place. We saw that with Anthropic Mythos. It would cause utter chaos with enormous political consequences, but the risk is very real and is being taken seriously at both European and Belgian government level.’ Strangely enough, Barbara Van Den Haute states that if it were to happen, ‘we will fight it with every legal means at our disposal.’ Would Microsoft then take legal action against Redmond (Microsoft’s headquarters)?
And then there’s this: would Microsoft have a problem if the Belgian authorities decided to show Microsoft the door? ‘That would be a nuisance. But we’ll always be there to help them with that,’ says Barbara Van Den Haute.
Last year, the Flemish government spent over 22.6 million euros on services from Microsoft, double the amount spent in 2023. This sum covers various software licences and IT services, including a major AI deal for the roll-out of Microsoft 365 Copilot licences for 10,000 civil servants. The latter accounted for over 5.6 million euros spread over two years. According to the media website Apache, hardly any research had been carried out for this and there was no public tender. Cegeka is the integrator under the Flemish government’s framework contract.
