Can The Eu Reconcile Digital Sovereignty And Economic Competitiveness

Europe's twin challenge: competitiveness and tech sovereignty The EU faces two existential problems. First: how can it tackle its so-called ‘competitiveness problem’ – its subdued rate of economic growth. Solving this problem requires better use of... More

Europe's twin challenge: competitiveness and tech sovereignty The EU faces two existential problems. First: how can it tackle its so-called ‘competitiveness problem’ – its subdued rate of economic growth. Solving this problem requires better use of innovations, which – thanks to Europe’s poor track record on commercialising new technologies – are mostly foreign today. The second: how can the EU boost its technological sovereignty, so that it is less reliant on unreliable trading partners? Summary This CERRE Issue Paper by Zach Meyers explores how the EU can reconcile these two priorities – just as the Commission is launching proposals for a European Competitiveness Fund, and a Cloud & AI Development Act, which aim to boost use of technologies like cloud and AI while supporting ‘sovereign’ technological solutions. Competitiveness and technological sovereignty can align in the long run: the biggest risk to Europe’s sovereignty is falling further behind in innovation. However, Less