Digital Sovereignty: challenges, current and upcoming perspectives, and recommendations at the EU level

These past few years, the GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook which is now Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft) and the BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi) have, thanks to their increasing growth, developed the capacity to rival the power of states and to impact individuals' freedom of self-determination. In a cyberspace where borders do not exist or where these are increasingly blurred, the growing awareness of this digital hegemony has led to the birth of the concept of digital sovereignty. The global pandemic has only amplified and further highlighted the risks associated to the loss of independence.

Today, it must be acknowledged that digital technology and the digital realm constitute more of a threat than an opportunity for the sovereignty of states and their self-determination, especially in a European context where policy-making in regards to digital technology is still fragmented in many ways, which hinders the rise of large European digital firms, and contributes to a high vulnerability in the field of cybersecurity, all of which benefits other global powers.