Safeguarding European values with digital sovereignty: an analysis of statements and policies

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has, with increasing frequency, outlined an intention to strengthen its "digital sovereignty" as a basis for safeguarding European values in the digital age. Yet, uncertainty remains as to how the term should be defined, undermining efforts to assess the success of the EU's digital sovereignty agenda. The task of this paper is to reduce this uncertainty by i) analysing how digital sovereignty has been discussed by EU institutional actors and placing this in a wider conceptual framework, ii) mapping specific policy areas and measures that EU institutional actors cite as important for strengthening digital sovereignty, iii) assessing the effectiveness of current policy measures at strengthening digital sovereignty, and iv) proposing policy solutions that go above and beyond current measures and address existing gaps. To do this, we introduce a conceptual understanding of digital sovereignty and then empirically ground this within the specific EU context via an analysis of a corpus of 180 EU webpages that have mentioned the term "digital sovereignty" within the past year. We find that existing policies, in particular those pertaining to data governance, help to achieve some of the EU's specific aims in regard to digital sovereignty, such as conditioning outward data flows, but they are more limited concerning other aims, like advancing the EU's competitiveness and regulating the private sector. This is problematic insofar as it constrains the EU's ability to safeguard and promote its values. The policy solutions we propose represent steps towards the further strengthening of the EU's digital sovereignty and firmer protection of EU values. This paper is part of Governing "European values" inside data flows, a special issue of Internet Policy Review

Achieving a ‘Good AI Society’: Comparing the Aims and Progress of the EU and the US

“…The EU's external-facing vision for a 'Good AI Society' should also be understood as part of the wider objective of 'digital sovereignty', for which AI is a constituent part (Floridi, 2020b;Roberts et al, 2021a). Though 'digital sovereignty' has not been clearly defined nor consistently used across EU institutions, it is generally understood in terms of maintaining strategic autonomy through having the capacity to determine its long-term social and economic future (Timmers, 2019).…”

“…At present, this is threatened most significantly by American and Chinese technology companies, that are, as one European Parliament report put it, "increasingly seen as dominating entire sectors of the EU economy" (Madiega, 2020). Digital sovereignty is a policy agenda formulated in response to this challenge that aims at strengthening European control over external actors through improved regulatory means and the promotion of domestic innovation (Roberts et al, 2021a).…”

“…A final uncertainty, likely to be influential in determining whether the EU is able to achieve its vision of a 'Good AI Society', is the extent to which the EU agenda of digital sovereignty is both articulated and successfully enacted. The loose aim of improving the EU's ability to 'act independently' (Madiega, 2020;Von Der Leyen, 2020) fails to adequately address whom the EU is seeking to achieve independence from (i.e., which other actors might claim digital sovereignty) nor the extent to which choices can be made by the EU 'independently' (Roberts et al, 2021a). Without a clear articulation of the EU's digital sovereignty agenda, it is difficult to pool support around a clear, holistic policy approach to the digital that can stimulate EU competitiveness beyond regulatory measures for AI.…”

Digital Sovereignty and Identity in the European Union: A Challenge for Building Europe

“…110 The idea of digital sovereignty is not clearly defined, and is used in a variety of ways throughout EU policy documents. 111 Even essential questions remain unanswered, such as whether the EU already has digital sovereignty or whether it is a goal for which the EU should aspire. 112 This lack of conceptual clarity raises questions about the EU's specific goals and makes it difficult for the EU to gain support for and successfully implement ,,a clear policy agenda".…”

Was heißt digitale Souveränität?

“…Vgl. für aktuelle Bemühungen im Diskurs, einen wertbezogenen Begriff digitaler europäischer Souveränität zu entwickeln,Roberts et al 2021.…”