Each year, 1.5 percentage points of GDP flows from the private and public sectors to American digital services.

Omissions

• The original source for the 1.5% figure is a May 2025 report by CIGREF (a French association of large companies), not an official statistical agency like Eurostat, which limits the precision and official standing of the data.
• The available sources focus on corporate/enterprise spending on cloud and software services specifically, while the MEP's claim extends to 'the private and public sectors' and 'American digital services' more broadly. It is unclear whether public-sector spending is included in the 1.5% calculation or would raise the figure further.
• The European Parliament ATAG document from 2025 corroborates the 1.5% figure but frames it as spending on 'foreign cloud and software,' which could theoretically include non-US foreign providers, though the context of the document is US digital dependence.
• The data was published in May 2025, approximately one year before the session date, but no more recent comparable estimate appears to have been produced.

Sources

• SecondaryCIGREFThe amounts of cloud software services purchased by EU companies from US digital players represent approximately 1.5% of EU GDP and 1.5 times the EU budget.
• SecondaryEuropean Parliament (ECTI ATAG)Around 80% of EU corporate spending on software and cloud flows to US vendors. Approximately 1.5% of EU GDP flows to foreign cloud and software services.
• SecondaryCloud TempleIt is equivalent to almost 1.5% of the European Union's GDP, a sum greater than the EU's annual budget. This situation places Europe in a position of economic and strategic vulnerability.