Sovereignty in the Digital Age – How Can We Measure Digital Sovereignty and Support the EU’s Action Plan?

Abstract

Abstract In the states of the European Union (EU), the question currently being asked is to what extent dependence on technologies from the USA and China will have a lasting impact on state sovereignty. The term digital sovereignty stands for the EU’s desire to compensate for the deficits of the past decades, which were caused by an insufficient development of the location for software and hardware development. Autocratic states use the path of digital autarky, the USA a path of liberalization and high degrees of openness. In the EU, on the other hand, regulation, data protection, and liberal values developed over centuries play a major role in the less pronounced IT development. The path of European states to more digital sovereignty has been addressed politically as an “action plan,” but there is still no common understanding or definition of what digital sovereignty exactly means. There is a lack of a target and a measurable index as well as evaluated measures derived from it. Based on a historical derivation, this article proposes a definition for European digital sovereignty and the formation of an index. The index needs to be further scientifically elaborated for applicability.