Why are European governments re-evaluating their agreements with US defence tech contractor Palantir?
Critics have flagged Palantir for their links to militaries involved in ongoing conflicts and ICE immigration enforcement in the United States.
European governments are moving to reduce their reliance on Palantir, the US-based data analytics companyy whose platforms serve as the data and artificial intelligence (AI) backbone for militaries worldwide.
Derk Boswijk, the Dutch State Secretary for Defence, said in the House of Representatives this week that a “fully fledged alternative” to Palantir must be available within two years.
Boswijk said the Netherlands has been using Palantir since 2010 on a “very limited, compartmentalised, and small scale,” according to local media.
Still, he said that the government is working on a “two-track policy to reduce dependency” on the company so they can operate independently “as soon as possible.” Documents submitted to the Dutch parliament indicate that they are looking for a European alternative.
Boswijk was responding to a question from Dutch politician Michelle Jagtenberg that the company has “racist and anti-democratic ideology,” and asked the government to terminate its relationship. It follows a 2025-approved motion to make its government more independent of Palantir and to find European-led solutions.
The Dutch are the latest in Europe to want to move away from using Palantir’s technologies in their contracts.
A recent report from the UK parliament said that the company’s programs give their national government an “unacceptable point of weakness.” Switzerland rejected Palantir bids at least nine times due to security concerns, and Denmark is also seeking local alternatives to f Palantir software.
We take a closer look at what concerns European governments have with the US defence tech company and what deals, if any, are still being renegotiated.
Why is Palantir controversial?
Palantir said it works with large amounts of data to create “the world’s best user experience for working with data, one that empowers people to ask and answer complex questions.”
One of its products, the Gotham decision-making software for weapons systems, is described as supporting soldiers with an “AI-powered kill chain” to identify targets.
The company itself and its heads, co-founder and chairman Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp, have been at the centre of controversy on both sides of the Atlantic for some time.
In a call with investors, Karp has said that he believes that the software developed by Palantir is meant to be used as a deadly weapon.
“Palantir is here to disrupt … and, when it's necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them,” he said, according to a transcript of the earnings call.
Karp reportedly said to investors on another call that making war crimes constitutional would be good for business after the United States struck boats in the Caribbean
Critics of Palantir, such as Amnesty International, argue that the company’s handling of these large volumes of data creates risks around privacy, transparency and reselling of health data in the deal struck with the UK government for its healthcare platform, the National Health Service (NHS).
Amnesty highlighted that it is problematic to grant “Palantir unprecedented access to the public’s health data records over the course of the pandemic through large NHS tech contracts.”
Palantir technology has reportedly been used by the United States’ Pentagon to gather classified information and use it for target acquisition in recent missile strikes against Iranian targets.
The company has also signed a deal with Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) in 2024 for “war-related missions” to support its military operations in Gaza and is using its software to locate migrant families in the US for the country’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
Euronews Next reached out to Palantir for this story but did not receive an immediate reply.
Which European governments have Palantir deals?
Several European governments are currently using Palantir technologies in parts of their public sector, particularly in defence, policing and intelligence, but the scale of adoption varies significantly by country.
The United Kingdom signed a contract with Palantir as the major supplier for theNHS, though a recent committee report to the parliament asks that this relationship be ended in 2027 when the contract is over and find a local provider instead.
Palantir also signed a three-year £240 million (€276 million)contract with the UK’s Ministry of Defence to provide “strategic, tactical and live operational decision making across classifications across defence and interoperable with NATO and other allied nations Palantir systems."
Some German police forces in Bavaria, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia use a limited version of the Palantir “Gotham” to help them investigate serious threats such as terrorist attacks, according to local media.
At the state level, the German military said it will not be contracting any US companies, including Palantir, for its contracts, according to Reuters.
"As much as we are interested in the functionality for our own database, it is simply inconceivable at the moment to grant industry staff access to the national database," Thomas Daum, the head of Germany’s cyber defence, reportedly said this week.
Instead, the government is shortlisting European alternatives, including French firm ChapsVision, for their software needs.
Denmark previously signed a 7-year deal with Palantir for surveillance and data analytics platforms, Maven Smart System and Foundry. However, it recently announced that it will be looking for local solutions to replace Palantir software instead.
After the Spanish government signed a €16.5 million contract with Palantir in 2023, over 40 companies use the company’s software, according to local reporting. There is little or no large-scale public pushback so far in Spain to using the company in contracts.
Euronews Next contacted these governments to see whether they are reconsidering some of their defence contracts with the US defence giant, but did not receive an immediate reply.
There is still interest in Europe from private companies to use Palantir solutions, with over 100 major European banks, asset managers and pension funds pouring more money into the company’s stakes in the last year, according to an investigation by Follow the Money.
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