The newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" published an in-depth interview with Dr. Michał Matlak, director of Łukasiewicz – ITECH, focusing on the anticipated effects of the technological sovereignty package announced by the European Commission on June 4, 2026.
The discussion is set against the backdrop of data from a report by the Łukasiewicz Center, which documents Poland’s growing trade deficit in digital products and services — estimated at 45 billion PLN annually and projected to exceed the value of energy imports by 2030.
Director Matlak describes the package as a moderate proposal that sets a direction but does not introduce strict mechanisms to limit the participation of non-EU entities in the European digital market. Instead of bans, the package offers a risk assessment framework and a system of incentives, leaving the effectiveness of implementation to the discretion of member states.
The interview addresses the structural dimension of Europe’s technological dependence: the dominance of American suppliers in cloud infrastructure, dependence on Asian markets in the semiconductor sector, and the concentration of global computing power in the U.S. and China. Dr. Matlak argues that sovereignty, including technological sovereignty, should not be understood in binary terms but rather as a continuous variable that can be influenced through regulatory instruments.
The discussion also addresses the issue of a more proactive industrial policy, which continues to face a real barrier in the form of the EU’s budgetary constraints and which represents a departure from the previous approach of strictly protecting the freedoms of the single market. Among the instruments discussed for reducing dependence, the expert points to open-source software and the need for integrated planning of the digital and energy transitions. The issue of strategic risks is emphasized separately: the physical location of data within the EU may not be sufficient if entities outside the EU retain methods of influence and interference with that data. Therefore, issues of legal jurisdiction, oversight of infrastructure, and the supply chain are just as important as the location of servers.
As a think tank within the Łukasiewicz Research Network, Łukasiewicz – ITECH actively monitors the legislative and technological processes shaping Poland’s digital resilience. Detailed analyses and scenarios for the domestic high-tech sector will be the focus of our upcoming reports.
The full text of the interview with Dr. Michał Matlak, featuring in-depth analysis and detailed commentary on the EU package, is available in today’s print and online editions of the daily newspaper *Rzeczpospolita*.