Parliament unanimous about combatting big tech monopoly

Dutch politicians are very concerned that the education sector is dependent on American tech companies. After all, those companies can simply shut down access to their software, as they did with the International Criminal Court earlier this year. Many people share this concern.

On Tuesday, this preoccupation was reflected in a widely supported appeal to the outgoing Minister of Education, Gouke Moes, calling on the government to work with universities and universities of applied sciences to combat their dependence on big tech. All 150 members of parliament voted in favour of the motion.

Breaking free
Minister Moes already indicated in a debate last week that he is not opposed to the idea, but now he has to work on it. The House wants the government to consider European alternatives, something that educational institutions could help with.

The institutions are ‘already taking steps to break the dependency through collaboration and joint procurement processes,’ according to GroenLinks-PvdA and D66, the parties that submitted the motion. The government should therefore work with the education sector on a ‘structural’ basis to combat dependency on big tech.

Nextcloud
The day before the House of Commons voted on this, Surf announced an extensive test with office software made in Germany. Surf is an IT cooperative comprised of educational and research institutions. It is calling on 2,000 students and staff to use Nextcloud for email, typing and video calls for a year. This software can take over several tasks from Microsoft.

However, two weeks ago, the sector discovered that the playing field is not entirely even. American tech companies can easily buy up their European competitors. That's what might happen to Solvinity, a successful Dutch company that manages the security of DigiD, the identity management platform for Dutch government agencies.

Jacquelien Scherpen, Rector of the University of Groningen, said last week that European alternatives must be protected against American acquisition. ‘We must ensure that the independence we are fighting for does not slip out of our hands again.’

Public transport
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives also approved a request to Minister Moes to discuss the million-euro discount with public transport companies. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is a major customer of the Dutch Railways (NS) and regional transport operators due to the public transport student card it subsidises. Now that students are using it less, Moes wants to cut 225 million euros from the budget.

But what are the consequences for public transport companies? Will this cause problems for regional transport operators? Last week, Moes referred the House to his colleague from Infrastructure and Water Management, but the House disagrees with this.

Left-wing parties supported the appeal by GroenLinks-PvdA. Ultimately, he secured a majority thanks to JA21 and Forum for Democracy. They also agree that the minister must first investigate the consequences of his cutbacks ‘before irreversible decisions are made’.