Reenvisioning Europe’s digital sovereignty

Konstantinos Komaitis and Mark Scott are senior resident fellows at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

After the announcement of the new European Commission lineup, one thing is clear: It’s Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s world, and we’re all just living in it.

Seizing control of how member countries choose new commissioners — and ousting would-be troublemakers like former Internal Market and Services Commissioner Thierry Breton — the German politician is now in full control and ready to lead on her main priority: making Europe’s economy more digital — and more green.

Von der leyen’s first five-year tenure was characterized by a muddled digital strategy focused on so-called “tech sovereignty.” But her current dominant position in the Berlaymont presents an opportunity to overhaul that approach.

Borne out of Brussels’ desire to globally compete with China and the U.S., “tech sovereignty” is what led the bloc to prioritize picking European champions — often legacy industrial giants sponsored by billions of euros in public funds — in hopes of creating European versions of Google or Amazon. These efforts overwhelmingly failed.

That strategy was also promoted most aggressively by Breton, who recently accused von der Leyen of throwing him under the bus in exchange for a “more influential portfolio” for France.

The EU is right to promote the bloc’s digital companies and values on the global stage. Brussels has positioned itself as a world leader on digital rule-making, creating new safeguards around social media, online competition and AI when others — most notably, Washington — have dawdled. Von der Leyen must now double down on this leadership and unleash the EU’s economic potential via next generation technologies.

The Commission leader should embrace a more open version of her landmark digital policy — one that forgoes protectionism and the promotion of legacy industries championed by the “tech sovereignty” approach. Instead, the focus should turn to entrepreneurial experimentation and connecting Europe’s vibrant economy to other markets.

When it comes to digital, Europe has a lot to offer  — and not just via its rules like the Digital Services Act and Artificial Intelligence Act. “Tech sovereignty” can be defined as more than just creating digital rules to protect against harm. It can include jump-starting entrepreneurship, fostering open markets and funding world-leading ideas.

If von der Leyen truly really wants to make the bloc more competitive — as outlined in the recent report from former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi — then she needs to empower European companies to excel on the global stage rather than just pick winners among the bloc’s legacy industrial giants.

Luckily, her new Commission has the building blocks to make this happen.

By choosing Finland’s Henna Virkkunen — a long-serving member of the European Parliament with expertise on Europe’s digital priorities — as the Commission’s executive executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, von der Leyen has made it clear she wants the bloc to globally compete on digital issues.

As a member of the so-called D9 Group of like-minded EU member countries that favor innovation over protectionism, Finland is the poster child for a more dynamic version of Europe’s digital agenda. The country currently has the highest number of cloud computing services among EU members — a mainstay for future economic growth — and has doubled down on publicly owned high performance computing, which is a requisite to create next-generation AI systems.

This should be a model for the rest of Europe.

Yet, Virkkunen will be working closely with France’s Stéphane Séjourné, who is now responsible for the Commission’s prosperity and industrial strategy. As a close ally of French President Emmanuel Macron — who strongly advocates a “tech sovereignty” agenda that promotes Gallic interests above those of the wider bloc — Séjourné is expected to continue pushing for strong industrial policy that often flirts with protectionism.

Von der Leyen must reject any version of “tech sovereignty” that siloes Europe’s economy from the wider world. She should empower her new Commission — most notably via Virkunnen and Séjourné — to set aside protectionist rhetoric and deliver on the promises of digital growth for the next five years.

By grasping control over the levers of power in Brussels, von der Leyen has shown she can act decisively. Now, she needs to turn those ambitions toward making the EU a global-facing innovation powerhouse, which it truly has the chance to be.