Digital Sovereignty: Fact or Fiction as an EU Regulatory Approach?

Abstract

Digitalisation offers seemingly endless possibilities, promising to benefit from unlimited global connectivity. The internet is also a threat to democracy, as evidenced by developments such as the spread of hate speech, illegal content and fake news. A project that was accompanied twenty-five years ago by the assertion that governments should have "no sovereignty" in cyberspace (Barlow, 1996) is now being revisited with governments' confirmation of the need to develop and exercise "digital sovereignty". In the EU, the digital regulatory approach is getting more unified and the supranational level is becoming increasingly important for the governance of digital issues. At first glance, this seems to correspond with the frequent reference to the expression of digital sovereignty in the European digital-political debate (Obendiek 2021). However, the concept of digital sovereignty allows for different interpretations and sometimes contradicting regulatory approaches. Digital policy can, for example, be understood in the sense of an internationally administered interdependence or, alternatively, more in the sense of greater autonomy for the Union or its member states. Against this background, this panel examines current trends in the EU framework for digital governance. On the one hand, the contributions analyse changes in the discourse on digital sovereignty and clarify whether the increasing use of the term has led to a conversion of its different dimensions towards a more commonly shared interpretation. On the other hand, our panel examines whether rhetoric is accompanied by actual changes in the form and function of recently adopted and proposed European regulations. The contributions analyse various policies governing aspects of digitalisation, including the digital dimension of trade policy, data governance, and the regulation of artificial intelligence. Ultimately, the panel aims for a more comprehensive theoretical and empirical understanding of current trends in regulatory governance in the increasingly important area of EU digital policy.

Title	Details
Digital Sovereignty: Conceptual and Empirical Findings on its Rhetoric and Reality	View Paper Details
Protecting, Transforming, and Projecting the Single Market. Strategic Autonomy in the EU’s Trade and Digital Policies	View Paper Details
The changing liberal international information order: The rise of the EU as a global public regulator	View Paper Details
The politics of AI regulation and governance reform in the EU	View Paper Details