Less Control for More Impact? Loose Couplings in the EU Digital Infrastructure Policy.

Digital infrastructures (DI) play a critical role in today’s EU public policy with Brussels devoting massive resources to push for strategic autonomy, the green economy, social standards, and market efficiency – all simultaneously. However, for the longest time, EU DI policy making mainly focused on market-related policy objectives (PO). The current multitude of POs is a relatively recent phenomenon, and its impact on sectoral policymaking remains underexplored. This paper examines how the simultaneous pursuit of multiple, independent POs shapes the selection of policy instruments (PIs) in the EUs DI sector. It proposes to understand PIs as ‘couplings’, between the governed and policy objectives. The findings demonstrate that, in the DI sector, the EU relinquishes direct control to sustain impact across multiple, in- dependent, and simultaneously pursued POs.