Inter­pel­la­ti­on Mich­aud Gigon (26.3479): Digi­tal sove­reig­n­ty, costs of inde­pen­dence and oppor­tu­ni­ties to exert influence in public procurement

Sub­mit­ted text

An inter­de­part­ment­al working group (IDWG) must report to the Fede­ral Coun­cil on how to deal with the risks ari­sing from the Switzerland’s digi­tal depen­dence on cer­tain com­pa­nies resul­ted. In his respon­se to my Moti­on 25.4120 «Digi­tal sove­reig­n­ty. Sup­port for Swiss eco­no­mic play­ers», the Fede­ral Coun­cil wri­tes that it is not curr­ent­ly plan­ning any eco­no­mic mea­su­res to sup­port Swiss eco­no­mic play­ers acti­ve in the field of digi­ta­lizati­on, but that the­re are nevert­hel­ess oppor­tu­ni­ties to streng­then digi­tal sove­reig­n­ty in a tar­ge­ted man­ner, for exam­p­le by defi­ning spe­cial tech­ni­cal specifications.

Against this back­ground, I put the fol­lo­wing que­sti­ons to the Fede­ral Council:

1. The Fede­ral Coun­cil men­ti­ons the poten­ti­al costs of govern­ment eco­no­mic mea­su­res. Can it also Ana­ly­sis of the eco­no­mic costs what will hap­pen if it fails to act? Becau­se the incre­a­sing depen­dence on for­eign pro­vi­ders in cri­ti­cal are­as (cloud, soft­ware, data and digi­tal infras­truc­tu­re) is asso­cia­ted with eco­no­mic and stra­te­gic risks as well as secu­ri­ty risks. If yes, by when? If not, why not?
2. Over what peri­od and accor­ding to what cri­te­ria is the Stra­te­gic bench­mark «costs and pro­fi­ta­bi­li­ty», as defi­ned in the Digi­tal Gui­de­lines for Digi­tal Sove­reig­n­ty in the Fede­ral Admi­ni­stra­ti­on of Decem­ber 11, 2025?
3. In 2026, the­re will still be no legal requi­re­ments for data cen­ters in Switz­er­land in the area of «Green IT». In con­trast to the EU’s Ener­gy Effi­ci­en­cy Direc­ti­ve, which requi­res all data cen­ters with an out­put of 500 kW or more to sub­mit a report, Switz­er­land has no cor­re­spon­ding requi­re­ments. What does the Fede­ral Coun­cil intend to do to ensu­re that this legal loopho­le can­not be exploi­ted by less effi­ci­ent providers?
4. The importance of digi­ta­lizati­on issues is incre­a­sing, and with it the need for the fede­ral offices to coor­di­na­te with each other. coor­di­na­te. Does the Fede­ral Coun­cil intend to appoint a cont­act per­son for poli­ti­cal legal issues to take up this stra­te­gic challenge?
5. Which Adjust­ments to public pro­cu­re­ment law would it be neces­sa­ry to include tech­ni­cal cri­te­ria that struc­tu­ral­ly favor inde­pen­dent actors, in par­ti­cu­lar by requi­ring exit stra­te­gies and bet­ter eva­lua­ting solu­ti­ons that do not requi­re tech­no­lo­gi­cal cus­to­mer lock-in and remo­te access to shut down cri­ti­cal infras­truc­tu­re com­pon­ents, or by giving lower ratings to prac­ti­ces that lead to grea­ter depen­den­ci­es in the long term?