Worldline and the price of European sovereignty: “We must take back control”

The global stage is shifting beneath our feet. After Donald Trump recently changed the tone in Davos with forceful statements about the international order, there is a growing awareness throughout Europe that we have become more vulnerable. The debate about sovereignty is no longer an academic exercise but has become a harsh necessity.

“In that context, it’s remarkable that we came close to letting an essential public system like DigiD fall almost into American hands,” says Paul Croiset van Uchelen, COO of equensWorldline NV, part of the Worldline Group.

Worldline acts as the invisible link that, together with banks, ensures millions of transactions get processed without disruption daily. From that vantage point, the company sees how geopolitical winds can shake the digital foundations of a country.

The illusion of control

The risks of today’s dependency are becoming uncomfortably tangible. When Trump imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, some employees lost access to their Microsoft accounts, including email. An arrest warrant for Netanyahu appeared to be enough for digital access to be restricted at the push of a button.

“You can’t really speak of sovereignty if an external power can directly influence your payments infrastructure,” says Tom Nijenhuis, CEO of equensWorldline. In the Netherlands, we have gradually given up that control over the past decades. “Look at the payments sector”, Croiset van Uchelen notes. “With the exception of iDEAL, we’ve effectively lost our own brands. We rely heavily on infrastructure provided by parties outside our continent.”

He draws a parallel with the COVID-19 crisis: “During the pandemic, we were shocked to discover we could no longer manufacture face masks because we’d outsourced everything to the lowest bidder. Something similar has happened in payments.”

The dependence is not only technical, but also functional. US players are fast and innovative. “If you want to change that, you’ll have to work extremely hard,” Nijenhuis observes. The conclusion is harsh: Europe is dependent, not just on American technology, but also on the pace of American innovation. We have become accustomed to an efficiency that has slowly eroded our autonomy.

Reliability means standing on two legs

Against geopolitical turbulence stands a simple, non-negotiable requirement: reliability. Before sovereignty can even be discussed, the basics must be rock-solid. In payments, that means systems must always remain operational.

“We see reliability as the core of our reason for being”, Nijenhuis explains. “It starts with the certainty that the system can keep running within our own borders, regardless of what happens on the world stage.” At Worldline, that stability is secured through robust physical infrastructure. The company “stands on two legs”: two fully separate Dutch data centres processing the same information. If one fails, the other takes over seamlessly.

Croiset van Uchelen offers a concrete example: “When an excavator recently cut a vital fibre-optic cable near one data centre, consumers didn’t notice anything.” By virtually isolating one data centre, the transaction flow continued through the second data centre without any interruption.

Seeing the whole chain

The sector is now facing the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). This regulation requires banks not only to assess their own IT security, but also to look deep into the supply chains of their partners.

DORA exposes how much complexity has accumulated and how dependencies often run several layers deep. Payment providers may believe they have everything under control, yet through their vendors they often end up relying on a US cloud giant after all. “DORA forces us to get a much clearer view of dependencies together,” says Nijenhuis.

That has driven a strategic pivot. Worldline has adjusted its cloud strategy by moving critical applications to its own European cloud. “That truly has been a change of course over the past twelve months”, says Croiset van Uchelen. “It’s a deliberate step to move outside the reach of American cloud providers and regain control over our infrastructure.”

The price of freedom

This shift back towards European control creates opportunities for initiatives such as Wero, a European challenger to Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay. “People aren’t married to an American brand; they want security and convenience”, Nijenhuis notes. “If Europe can deliver that itself, the balance of power can shift.”

But the road back to autonomy comes at a real cost. European sovereignty is technically demanding and requires patience. “You have to be willing to invest in this for ten years,” Nijenhuis points out. It can also affect margins in the short term in exchange for greater independence in the long term. Sovereignty means being willing to pay more for a system that may have fewer bells and whistles, but for which you hold the keys yourself.

Ultimately, it comes down to a single question: what is our autonomy worth? Do we choose the fast convenience of external platforms, or do we build our own digital dikes? For the Worldline leaders, the answer is clear. “We share a responsibility to take back control”, says Nijenhuis. “We need to ensure that in ten years’ time, we hold the reins ourselves.”

“We expect Europe to take important steps in this area in the coming period”, Croiset van Uchelen concludes. “As Worldline, we want to play an active role in that, together with other parties in the payments chain. By working closely and applying our expertise, we contribute to a future-proof, innovative payments ecosystem that aligns with Europe’s ambitions.”

To read the original Dutch publication on Banken.nl, click here.