Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech – POLITICO

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Finnish spy chief warns Europe may never break free from foreign tech

Reliance on US software and Chinese hardware is like "two types of cancer," Juha Martelius told POLITICO.

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Juha Martelius is the head of Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service. | Finnish Parliament

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May 18, 2026

6:00 am CET

By

Antoaneta Roussi

TALLINN — Europe will likely never be fully independent from foreign technologies because it relies too much on software from the United States and hardware from China, Juha Martelius, the head of Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service, told POLITICO.

“I'm afraid we're a body infiltrated by two types of cancer,” he said, referring to the European continent, on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Security Conference in Tallinn on Saturday. "It is probably impossible to operate, but you can live with it."

His warning comes as European officials have renewed calls for greater strategic autonomy, particularly in critical technologies, defense and digital infrastructure. The European Commission is expected to present a Tech Sovereignty Package in coming weeks that could restrict EU governments' use of U.S. cloud providers to handle sensitive data.

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Cloud services featured in the Finnish agency’s recent annual report, which said their adoption can obscure the digital independence of states. Martelius said that there had been discussion in Finland about putting election information in a cloud service, but given that the Finnish election system functions "extremely well," the idea was eventually dropped.

“The kind of information that is critical for securing national security, like for instance, election-related data, is one thing which definitely should not be handled by any foreign firm,” he said.

On European innovation, Martelius said Finland has excellent R&D in the areas of quantum and space, but, like other parts of Europe, it lacks sufficient capital.

The intelligence chief, who took up the post in 2024, questioned whether Europe could even develop European cloud services as efficient as those from U.S. hyperscalers or win the war against Russia without foreign technology.

“Currently not,” he said. "But it's also a question of how much does Europe want to win the war by itself and how much does it want to rely still in the future on our U.S. allies' assistance?"