Following the uproar caused by the publication of the draft report on ‘Technological Sovereignty’ by Sarah Knafo MEP (ESN, French), several MEPs on the Committee on Industry (ITRE) are preparing a ‘counter-report’, a working version of which Agence Europe was able to obtain dated March.
Entitled ‘European technological sovereignty and digital infrastructure’, this ‘counter-report’, in which MEPs from the EPP, Renew Europe and S&D are participating, is more complex and more comprehensive than Sarah Knafo’s report.
However, its recommendations are more cautious than those put forward by the far-right MEP.
The French MEP advocates a preference policy, “to allow Member States to restrict their strategic procurement procedures to European companies that meet sovereignty criteria”.
She also takes up the theme of the ‘EUCS’ (European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services ), supporting the adoption of a strict system in terms of guarantees of security and sovereignty, equivalent to the French system (see EUROPE 13394/9).
She also calls for “sensitive data in sovereign infrastructure” to be “protected from foreign extraterritorial laws”, and for the Commission to facilitate “the roll-out of 5G by relaxing the conditions on the concentration of firms”.
For its part, the current version of the ‘counter-report’ recognises that “a comprehensive industrial policy (...) is needed, integrating all relevant policy domains such as market access, standardisation, research and development, investment, trade and international cooperation”.
More evasive at this stage than Sarah Knafo’s report, it calls on the Commission to “concentrate” on the reforms recommended by the ‘Draghi’ report, particularly with regard to the single market, to speed up the deployment of cutting-edge technologies, to support the roll-out of 5G and 6G, and to define a “roadmap for artificial intelligence and quantum technology”, and insists on the “review” of the Cybersecurity Act.
The final version of the text is expected to be more ambitious, according to several sources.
See Sarah Knafo’s report: https://aeur.eu/f/fze
See the counter-report: https://aeur.eu/f/fzf (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)