On Tuesday 12 May, Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, called for “building a European public digital infrastructure and core technologies, buying European solutions and supporting our digital industries” as well as “protecting, guaranteeing and enforcing the rules for a level playing field”, both in terms of EU digital rules and competition rules.
Speaking at a conference on technological sovereignty organised by the S&D group in the European Parliament, Ms Ribera said that the future package on technological sovereignty - which the Commission is due to adopt on 27 May - aims to “boost European production of critical chips, accelerate and develop large-scale artificial intelligence models in Europe and triple European ‘cloud capacity’”.
The Executive Vice-President explained that digital sovereignty concerned “essential aspects”, in particular how to “reduce the pressure” exerted on the industrial chain and industrial development by “suppliers from outside Europe or who do not respect our own rules”. She also emphasised the importance of allowing European start-ups to “develop”, while stressing the need to ensure that “competition rules remain based on the truth of the market”, particularly with regard to the concentration of economic power, market domination and the protection of the various market players and consumer choice.
The Executive Vice-President warned that “Europe depends on foreign suppliers for more than 80% of its digital products and infrastructures. American ‘cloud’ providers hold over 70% of the European ‘ cloud’ market”. This is why, in her view, “being able to monitor, promote, encourage and rely on adequate regulation, including ethical parameters and the effective possibility of challenging dominant players, will remain a key element in guaranteeing democracy, freedom and diversity in the way we provide services to our citizens”.
She also highlighted the commitment of the 27 EU Member States to European digital sovereignty - they had signed the Declaration on Digital Sovereignty in Berlin in 2025 - and insisted on the “scale of ambition” required. “Our InvestAI initiative aims to mobilise €200 billion of investment in artificial intelligence,” she said. (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)