Government on BeLibre - Belgian independent knowledge and policy platform

What Academia Now Tells Governments About Digital Dependency

Jurgen Gaeremyn — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Things are starting to shift in the field of digital dependency. The conversation in the public sector has moved from civil society warnings to parliamentary reports, from IT conferences to cabinet agendas. Academia was tracking this before it became a policy priority: Paul van Vulpen began researching digital sovereignty and decentralised IT governance when neither was high on anyone’s agenda. He defended his dissertation Debating Digital Dominance: Decentralized Technology Governance For Strategic Autonomy at Utrecht University in January 2026.

One year of BeLibre: why digital freedom concerns us all

Jurgen Gaeremyn — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Imagine waking up one morning to find that the local council no longer knows who is entitled to social support. That the hospital can no longer access patient records. That the police have lost their communication systems. Not because of an attack, but simply because one American company somewhere far away has a technical outage, raises its prices, or suddenly refuses access.

Sounds far-fetched? Less than you might think. But this article is not about fear. It is about what becomes possible when you make conscious choices.

The pigeon that flew back: how Belgium quietly chose open source messaging

Emma, Jurgen Gaeremyn — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine: the year is 1914. Somewhere on the Western Front, a small pigeon is released with a message tied to its leg. It doesn’t know why. It doesn’t know for whom. It simply flies - reliable, unseen, tireless - and delivers the message.

For centuries, the pigeon was the gold standard of secure communication. No wires to tap. No central server to hack. Decentralised by nature. And surprisingly hard to intercept.

BeLibre Sovereignty Map

Mon, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Interactive map where you can discover digital sovereignty in municipalities, schools, emergency services or other critical infrastructure in our country and beyond.