{"id":6899,"date":"2020-09-11T08:51:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T07:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=6899"},"modified":"2021-03-03T17:25:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T17:25:28","slug":"how-europe-can-achieve-digital-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/how-europe-can-achieve-digital-sovereignty\/6899\/","title":{"rendered":"How Europe can achieve digital sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEO of EIT Digital, Willem Jonker,<\/a> spoke to Innovation News Network about a recent policy perspective report which has outlined how Europe can achieve digital sovereignty.<\/h2>\n

EIT Digital<\/a> aims at global impact through European innovation fuelled by entrepreneurial talent and digital technology. It strengthens Europe\u2019s position in the digital world by delivering breakthrough digital innovations to the market and breeding entrepreneurial talent for economic growth and improved quality of life. EIT Digital helps business and entrepreneurs to be at the frontier of digital innovation by providing them with technology, talent, and growth support.<\/p>\n

In a new policy perspective report, EIT Digital has provided an overview of policy motivations, trends, instruments, and the roles of various actors in defining the perception of and perspectives for Europe\u2019s digital sovereignty. The report\u2019s conclusion calls on Europe to better connect makers (industry) and shapers (authorities) to create the right policy instruments for a sovereign European digital reality with innovation and regulation that respect European values and rights while creating equal economic opportunity for all actors.<\/p>\n

The Innovation News Network<\/em> spoke to EIT Digital\u2019s CEO, Willem Jonker, about this report and the issue of digital sovereignty more generally, alongside some of the organisation\u2019s other activities, such as the EIT Digital Challenge 2020.<\/p>\n

EIT Digital has recently released a report about digital sovereignty, within which you highlight four scenarios for the future of digital sovereignty in Europe. Could you tell us more about what this includes and what it is designed to achieve?<\/h3>\n

The European digital infrastructure and data sovereignty report<\/a>\u00a0by EIT Digital is the second report in a series. The first one was about the digital transformation of European industry and we will soon launch another one about artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Here, we are gradually beginning to focus more on thought leadership. EIT Digital<\/a> has become well-established now; we have a strong ecosystem and a strong delivery on digital talent, as well as a strong delivery on ventures and innovations. As we have worked to develop this, we have also developed our experience with regard to what works when it comes to growing ventures in Europe and, particularly, what the typical issues are when you want to bring new technologies to the market. Very often, these challenges have policy elements, and so we have expanded our attention to include thought leadership with respect to digital policies.<\/p>\n

The new report uses a scenario-based approach, and this is because a lot of discussions in this area appear to be based more on sentiments and less on strong underpinning data (and a strong analysis of that data). We wanted to create something which reveals the consequences of certain policy choices that could be made.<\/p>\n

The EIT Digital report about European digital infrastructure<\/a> and data sovereignty introduces four scenarios:<\/p>\n