The Standing Committee on Local Government and Public Administration is considering a private member's bill on digital sovereignty from six MPs. While committee members agree on the need to strengthen Norway's digital independence, they have put forward proposals reflecting significant disagreement over approach. Labour and Conservative members back pilot projects and diversification, while Socialist Left, Red, and Green members propose more ambitious measures including a national public cloud service, exit strategies from large IT platforms, and a national open-source program.
AI-generated summary · Model: Claude Haiku 4.5 · Generated: 14 May 2026
These are the proposals in the document, not decisions. See the votes for the outcome.
The Storting asks the government to continuously map Norway's digital dependencies on other countries and jurisdictions to ensure sufficient national control over the digital infrastructure supporting critical public functions. The first report should be delivered to the Storting by the end of 2026.
The Storting asks the government to facilitate pilot projects to diversify IT platforms in state administration and critical infrastructure, following the model used by Danish authorities.
The Storting asks the government to examine shared municipal procurement arrangements for advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, modeled on Denmark's KOMBIT.
The Storting asks the government to establish digital sovereignty as an overarching goal in Norway's digitalization strategy.
The Storting asks the government to strengthen cooperation with Nordic and European countries on shared digital solutions and preparedness, prioritizing open-source software and digital sovereignty over digital infrastructure.
The Storting asks the government to explain how it will better enforce GDPR and ensure that sensitive and critical public information about citizens is processed only in systems under Norwegian or European jurisdiction.
The Storting asks the government to strengthen and develop inter-municipal cooperation and joint arrangements that develop digital solutions for the public sector, based on open-source software and standards.
The Storting asks the government to ensure establishment of a national cloud service owned and operated by the public sector for data storage and as a public work tool.
The Storting asks the government to develop a licensing scheme for collection, use, and storage of both publicly generated data and personal data for commercial actors. Such a scheme must set requirements for which data can be used, for what purposes, where and how it is stored, and whether and how it may be shared with third parties.
The Storting asks the government to develop a national exit strategy for phasing out large international commercial IT platforms, such as Microsoft 365, in state administration and critical infrastructure, following the example of Danish authorities, with a view to rapid transition to new systems.
The Storting asks the government to reduce vendor lock-in by establishing rules for public procurement of IT solutions using open standards and open-source software with universal design, enabling interoperability across the public sector.
The Storting asks the government to examine and report back to the Storting in the 2027 state budget with a model for public cloud services. The examination should assess the concept of Public Cloud Collaboration (OSS), involving key actors with proven experience such as Sintef and OSS, Helsenett, the University of Oslo, and the Defence Sector. The cloud should be owned and operated by the public sector for data processing, storage, and transfer, and as a public work tool, preferably using open-source software.
The Storting asks the government to ensure that sovereign infrastructure for data storage and processing in the cloud is available to all public sector entities.
The Storting asks the government to develop, by 2026, a national strategy for diversifying away from large international commercial IT platforms in the public sector. The strategy should include a plan for preventing the Norwegian public sector from being locked in to single actors with significant market power, such as Microsoft 365. The strategy should assess which parts of state administration and critical infrastructure should be completely independent of platforms from which access could be cut off at short notice by foreign authorities.
The Storting asks the government to establish a national open-source program for the public sector, with proposals for funding skills development and targeted implementation where open solutions reduce dependence on proprietary platforms and strengthen reuse.
The Storting asks the government to reduce vendor lock-in by establishing rules for public procurement of IT solutions using open standards, enabling interoperability across the public sector.
The Storting asks the government to ensure that the Norwegian public sector systematically contributes funding to international open-source work that public services build upon or depend on, including community-driven maintenance and security updates.