Digital sovereignty in an 'open manner'? EU tensions between autonomy and competitiveness

At the end of 2022, the EU solemnly adopted the Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles, a non-legally binding document systematising the Union’s shared political intentions and commitments towards the digital transformation. The Declaration stresses the importance of achieving a sufficient level of strategic autonomy in the digital field vis-a-vis foreign countries. This idea is expressed using the concept of ‘digital sovereignty in an open manner’, intended as a strategy to improve independence from non-EU players while fostering ‘the availability of services’ and ‘a dynamic, resource efficient, and fair economy’ (Recital 6). This chapter identifies a tension between these policy objectives. Is it possible for the EU to become digitally independent while maintaining its founding vision of an open and competitive economy? The chapter aims to assess this EU policy ambition by contextualising it in the existing regulatory framework and by carrying out a comparative analysis of similar policies emerging in the US and China. The chapter concludes proposing the adoption of a necessity and proportionality test to avoid protectionist distortions and to assess the alignment of EU digital sovereignty strategies with the protection of fundamental rights.