By Hamid Chriet, French-British cybersecurity expert
Cyber threats ignore borders, ideologies, and trade agreements. In a world where data has become a strategic weapon, digital security is now as vital as energy or defense. Yet despite this reality, Europe and the United Kingdom too often advance on separate tracks: one locked into regulatory frameworks, the other driven by operational pragmatism. It is time to imagine a new approach—one of cybersecurity built on alliance rather than separation, grounded in complementarity rather than divergence.
Since Brexit, many have assumed that the UK’s departure marked the end of a shared digital future with Europe. This is a misreading of the facts. In reality, the cyber threats facing Paris, Berlin, and London are identical. Whether targeting supply chains, critical infrastructure, or health data, the nature of the risks is the same—and the adversaries, more often than not, are the same as well. The illusion of standalone security simply does not hold. Post-Brexit cybersecurity must not become a solitary race, but a field of agile cooperation between nations that share values, interests, and vulnerabilities.
The British and European models differ, of course, but they are profoundly complementary. The United Kingdom, through its National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has developed a realistic, collaborative, and results-oriented approach. This structure has become a global reference for crisis management and intelligence-sharing with the private sector. The European Union, for its part, has advanced on another front: regulation and the creation of a harmonized security framework. The NIS2 directive and the Cyber Resilience Act reflect a determination to standardize security requirements across the continent and embed a culture of prevention and transparency.
These two philosophies—British agility and European regulation—should not oppose each other but reinforce one another. Together, they can form a coherent strategy: a cybersecurity of alliance, pragmatic in implementation and ambitious in standards. Such a model is essential for addressing the dual challenge facing European democracies: protecting critical infrastructure while preserving technological autonomy.
For the real threat today is not only the attack itself—it is dependence. Dependence on foreign technologies, on American cloud services, on security solutions built outside the continent. Here, Europe and the UK share the same vulnerability: the ease with which they entrust their digital foundations to external actors whose interests do not always align with theirs. This creates a strategic weakness: a nominal digital sovereignty resting on infrastructures they do not control.
Breaking free from this dependence does not mean retreating inward. The goal is not to build a “European digital wall” but to construct a sovereign, interoperable technological ecosystem. On this point, the UK and the EU have everything to gain from working together. London brings extensive expertise in risk management, cyber intelligence, and workforce training. Europe brings unmatched regulatory power and a growing industrial base. By combining these strengths, a “third cyber path” could emerge—neither American nor Chinese, but authentically European.
This cooperation could be structured around three priorities:
first, shared cyber intelligence, because the threat is collective and the response must be as well;
second, joint research in critical technologies—encryption, sovereign cloud, AI security—to reduce dependence on global giants;
third, talent development, since there is no sovereignty without human capital. Joint programs for training, certification, and mobility between British and European experts would strengthen resilience on both sides of the Channel.
Some will argue that cooperation already exists through NATO or sector-specific partnerships. True—but it is not enough. The challenge is no longer merely to share technical information or respond to attacks. It is to articulate a shared vision of cybersecurity in Europe—one that reconciles British rapidity with European stability, Anglo-Saxon market flexibility with EU institutional rigor. Only then can we build lasting digital sovereignty.
In a world where new technological blocs are emerging, cybersecurity has become an instrument of power. Europe and the United Kingdom no longer have the luxury of acting apart. Their cyber future depends on their ability to cooperate, pool their strengths, and speak with one voice in the face of the giants that dominate global cyberspace. European digital sovereignty will not be built in separation, but in alliance.
