Ahead of the presentation of the Tech Sovereignty Package, which the European Commission is due to adopt on Wednesday 3 June, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament joined forces with more than a dozen European tech companies, including OVHcloud, Proton, Mastodon, Nextcloud and Ecosia, and six civil society organisations, including Defend Democracy and the Future of Technology Institute, to call on the European Union to strengthen its “technological capabilities through investment, open ecosystems, sovereign and resilient infrastructure”.
In a joint statement published on Monday 1 June, the signatories state that “policies and procurement decisions should favour solutions that demonstrably strengthen Europe’s digital autonomy”. They call for the adoption of “clear” criteria to guarantee technological sovereignty, that reflect “genuine operational control” and “ legal independence from non-democratic jurisdictions”.
Their proposals include the use of “strategic public procurement” to “reduce dependencies on non-European companies”. In their view, public demand should be used to “create viable markets” for “European digital solutions and infrastructures” based on openness, cooperation, privacy protection, energy efficiency and respect for social and environmental rights.
To see the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/m4s (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)