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European Digital Sovereignty and the Transatlantic Partnership
European policymakers have made explicit commitments to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty, especially where dependencies affect security. There is a need for decisive action to secure Europe’s core digital capabilities for the future. Our Munich Security Brief showcases where Europe is still ahead, where it must catch-up, and how its technological capabilities serve not only Europe, but also the transatlantic partnership.
As digital technologies become increasingly important in government, industry, and daily life, Europeans are becoming more concerned about their reliance on foreign technology providers. In an exclusive survey of more than 6,000 Europeans published in one of our previous Munich Security Briefs majorities of respondents agreed that their country is too dependent on digital technologies from the United States and from China. Expectations for the development of such dependencies are equally bleak: a survey for the Munich Security Report 2021 shows that, around the world, including in Europe, the vast majority of respondents believe the US and China will be the leading tech powers in 50 years’ time, not the European Union.
This Munich Security Brief delivers a clear-eyed view on Europe’s domestic digital capabilities. Europe has strengths in some technologies but needs to accelerate the pace of innovation, commercialization, and adoption in others. European deficiencies on core capabilities for digital sovereignty present risks to transatlantic security and the common digital agenda. It is in the partnership’s interest that Europe remains capable of building secure supply chains, achieving data interoperability in intelligence, cooperating on cybersecurity, and enabling joint NATO military operations.
To strengthen European digital sovereignty, policy makers should turn their attention towards designing incentives for the creation and scaling up of innovative companies. The instruments for doing so are well established and range from competitions to targeted technology development programs. The security sector can act as a catalyst for innovation through multinational and European security programs. In this context, Europe would profit from ambitious common projects in the area of space, intelligence, and defense.
A working draft of this Munich Security Brief was discussed at the MSC Technology Roundtable on July 6, 2021, in Strasbourg at the European Parliamentary Association. The authors and the entire MSC team are very thankful to all participants of the event for their input.
Munich Security Briefs
With its Munich Security Briefs, the MSC aims at contributing to ongoing debates on a particular issue within the broad field of international security. A much more concise format than the Munich Security Report, the briefs are meant to provide an overview of an issue or a read-out of a particular MSC event as well as a succinct analysis of its policy implications and strategic consequences. They generally express the opinion of their author(s) rather than any position of the Munich Security Conference.
This Munich Security Brief serves as a contribution to the European and transatlantic debate on digital sovereignty. It is part of the MSC’s Road to Munich campaign, which aims to highlight key items on the agenda for renewing transatlantic cooperation.
