MEP warns: Microsoft threatens EU digital security

Microsoft's blocking of the email address of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, constitutes an act of "digital sabotage of the international rule of law", given that the institution is based in a member state of the European Union, said Maltese MEP Alex Agius Saliba, who called on the European Commission to take urgent action against the US tech giant, according to an article published in the Times of Malta.

In an intervention addressed to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Agius Saliba raised several questions about the diplomatic actions taken by the Commission in the face of US sanctions imposed on ICC officials for their official work, aimed at protecting the international legal order. These sanctions, imposed by US President Donald Trump, come in response to the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

According to a report by Euronews, Karim Khan has lost access to his Microsoft email account and his bank accounts in the United Kingdom have also been blocked. The sanctions imposed by an executive order of the Trump administration provide for prison sentences and fines for any person, institution or company that provides financial, material or technological support to the ICC prosecutor. Furthermore, American employees have been warned that they risk arrest if they return to the United States.

Saliba asked the European Commission whether it has initiated discussions with Microsoft representatives regarding this case and whether European law allows the company to be forced to resume providing digital services. The MEP also called for an assessment of the risks to which other European or international entities, public or private, are exposed in the event that their actions conflict with the interests of foreign governments, in which case tech giants such as Microsoft could withdraw essential services.

Contacted for comment by Maltese journalists, Agius Saliba stressed that the problem lies in the European Union's dependence on digital infrastructure hosted outside its territory. "Almost all the cloud services we use every day are not based in the EU, which exposes us to risks such as the sanctions imposed by Trump against the ICC," he said. He warned that similar sanctions could be applied to any state or person whose statements or actions do not please a foreign power such as the US.

Regarding the recent signing of a four-million-euro contract with Microsoft by the Maltese government in the field of artificial intelligence, MEP Saliba clarified that the problem is not related to the company itself, but to the influence exercised by the states from which these tech giants come. "Microsoft should not have the authority to unilaterally decide to suspend services. However, complications can arise when a Big Tech from outside the Union has to obey the orders of foreign governments, which directly affects our digital infrastructure," concluded the MEP.

This situation brings back to mind the need for European digital sovereignty and raises fundamental questions about the security and autonomy of the Union's digital infrastructure in the face of external political pressures.