Breton: Europe must not forgo its digital sovereignty

In an op-ed for The Guardian, former European Commissioner Thierry Breton considers why protecting EU digital sovereignty is crucial in the face of competing global models. Breton notes that the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA), Data Act, and Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) form the world's most advanced legal framework for protecting citizens and democracies, and that access to the EU market requires adherence to these rules.

Breton argues that Europe's path is a middle ground between the "unrestrained liberalism" of the US model, dominated by a few private technology companies, and the "authoritarian dirigisme" of China and Russia, which rely on state control and surveillance. He urges immediate application of EU digital laws as the first expression of sovereignty and warns against attempts to weaken these "digital pillars" through omnibus proposals or calls for simplification, which he suggests are of transatlantic origin.

For credible, lasting digital autonomy, Breton calls for massive investment in critical sovereign infrastructure, including cloud services, networks, and AI, combined with a genuine single capital market to foster the emergence of European industry champions. He also stresses the need to resist external pressure and assert the strength of sovereign infrastructure by freeing EU data from non-European jurisdictions like the US Patriot and Cloud Acts.