The French Minister for the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, spoke on Monday 7 February at the ‘Digital Sovereignty Conference’. The two leaders discussed the priorities of the French Presidency of the EU Council and the strategy to be developed to achieve EU sovereignty in the digital field.
“There is no political sovereignty without digital sovereignty”, Bruno Le Maire began, before listing the three pillars - innovation, regulation, and energy - on which the EU’s strategy in this area should be based.
Regarding innovation, the French Minister of the Economy insisted on the need to support research through investment and public funds.
“For decades, we did not give enough aid while others did”, he added.
On the subject of regulation, Bruno Le Maire referred to the texts currently being negotiated, respectively on digital services (DSA) (see EUROPE 12873/9) and on digital markets (DMA) (see EUROPE 12876/19).
Finally, the French Minister of the Economy insisted on energy sovereignty: “We need capacity for electricity, if we want to ensure that everything runs smoothly, 5G, the ‘cloud’, data storage, or autonomous vehicles. We also believe in nuclear power, which will enable us to achieve technological sovereignty”.
“Digital sovereignty can be held by the private sector, as in the US, or by an authoritarian regime, as in China. And there is a third model that we want to build together”, he concluded.
A forthcoming text on the ‘digital commons’
Clément Beaune, for his part, returned to the need to develop reaction capabilities in the face of cyberattacks and disinformation. “We have more assets than we think”, he said, before recalling that a large-scale cyber security simulation exercise was currently being conducted (see EUROPE 12880/9). The final phase of this exercise will take place on 21 February.
Finally, Mr Beaune also announced that a new proposal for a text would be made at the initiative of the French Presidency of the EU Council. This future text should make it possible to protect the ‘digital commons’.
“Europe aims to be the antidote to the strategies of domination of the digital world, whether their actors are private or public. There are spaces that belong neither to the market nor to the States. [...] These are the digital commons”, explained the Secretary of State.
The text would cover platforms such as Wikipedia and guarantee support to ensure their freedom. “The aim is to come up with concrete measures” before the end of France’s term at the head of the EU Council at the end of June. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)