EPP Group IMCO Hearing on Sovereignty in the Digital Single Market

Description of the event

The European economy's sovereignty is threatened by far-reaching technological and geopolitical changes. In such a threatening environment, the window of opportunity to shape Europe's digital future is closing rapidly, considering that the global race for Artificial Intelligence is already in full swing. Digital sovereignty will undoubtedly seal the fate of the European economy.

The EU has so far undoubtedly enjoyed worldwide leadership on digital regulation, in particular thanks to the GDPR, DMA, DSA, AI and the Data Act, becoming a worldwide norm-setting power but relying on ambitious and effective enforcement by European and national public authorities ensuring that big players operate according to European rules.

However, the concentration of digital platforms represents a threat to European competitiveness, innovation capacity and sovereignty, as well as a security challenge. Despite our efforts to implement digital pioneering regulations, we remain deeply reliant on non-EU countries for e-commerce platforms, social media, and search platforms.

If regulatory action is a powerful tool, it is insufficient to ensure a fully-fledged European digital sovereignty. We should focus on:

Ensuring the rollout of fast, widespread, secure and resilient connectivity infrastructure in order to shape them by ourselves and maintain control over them;
Fostering innovation and investments in order to address the severe trade imbalances in the digital sector and to develop digital entities as independent as possible from Big Tech and with strong digital governance;
Building a strong and effective enforcement capacity with the overall objective of powering up the European tech ecosystem and making it sovereign and competitive.

Hence, this event aims to gather a unique set of experts to discuss the three aforementioned dimensions essential for the EU to ensure its digital sovereignty.

Programme of the event

14:00-14:15: Opening remarks

Andreas Schwab, EPP Group IMCO Coordinator

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14:20-15:05 Panel 1: Scaling up European digital infrastructure

In its White Paper on "How to master Europe's digital infrastructure needs", published in February 2024, the Commission made a diagnosis of the availability and security of the digital infrastructure, enhancing the necessity of rolling out fast, widespread, secure and resilient connectivity networks. It also considered several scenarios for public policy actions, in particular a possible future Digital Networks Act that aims to build the digital networks of the future to meet future connectivity needs of all end-users, increase the competitiveness of the European digital sector and ensure a resilient and secure infrastructure. This panel will aim to discuss Europe's diverse connectivity infrastructure challenges and the expectations of stakeholders concerned regarding a possible upcoming legislative proposal.

Moderator: Adina Valean MEP

Roberto Viola, Director General of DG CNECT, European Commission
Lise Fuhr, Director General of ETNO (European Telecommunications Network Operators‘ Association)
Juhan Lepassaar, Executive Director, ENISA (European Agency for Cybersecurity), or Ingrida Taurina, Head of Unit, ENISA

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15:10-15:55 Panel 2: Fostering investments in order to address digital trade imbalances in a context of exponentially growing technologies and innovations

The digital imbalance between the EU and third countries is steadily increasing. Their tech giants are exercising their market power along increasingly digital value chains, expanding them and increasingly encroaching on traditional business areas, hence threatening European sovereignty. This can also be seen in digital trade. While the EU has a trade surplus in physical goods, US companies are dominating digital services. In 2022, US exports of digital goods amounted to 336 billion euros, while European exports of digital goods to the US amounted to only 15 billion euros, and this trend has worsened since 2017. Particularly with exponentially growing technologies and innovations, it is important to avoid emerging dependencies and lock-in effects or, where they exist, to consistently reduce them. In this context, the EU shall aim for open and interoperable digital infrastructure components that are essential to support European digital services (in cloud, education, healthcare, energy, etc).

Moderator: Dora David MEP

Dr. Matthias Kullas, Head of Division: Economic and Fiscal Policy, Internal Market and Competition Policy, CEP (Centre for European Policy)
Ulrich Ahle, CEO of GAIA-X
Johnny Ryan, Senior Fellow, Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Open Markets Initiative

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16:00-16:45 Panel 3: Ensuring regulatory compliance to prohibit competition-distorting behaviour

Third-country e-commerce platforms practising extremely low prices and often violating legislation on product safety, working conditions, sustainability, copyright and data protection are endangering European businesses and consumers. Protecting the Single Market relies on the effective implementation of the DMA, the DSA, the Product Safety Regulation, and the legislation on customs. This panel will discuss how to better ensure the enforcement of European legislation and whether the current regulations are sufficient to prevent third-country e-commerce platforms from distorting competition to the detriment of European companies and consumers.

Moderator: Pablo Arias MEP

Victoria de Posson, Secretary General of EUTA (European Tech Alliance)
Ilya Bruggeman, Director, Digital, Single Market, and Consumer Policy, EuroCommerce
Representative of DG COMP, European Commission