Sending Signals or Building Bridges? Digital Sovereignty in EU Communicative and Co‐Ordinative Discourse

Abstract

This article studies the role that ‘digital sovereignty’ performs in the EU’s digital policy discourse comparing speeches by high-level European Commission officials and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It indicates that the concept of digital sovereignty is not mentioned very frequently, neither in the European Parliament (EP) nor in the public statements of top EU officials. It is furthermore not closely linked to specific policy ideas, not even to the idea of promoting European values in the world as a way of openly projecting digital sovereignty outward. EP actors mainly refer to policy-related aspects of digital sovereignty, and these show systematic affinities to parties’ ideologies – primarily along an axis of economic development versus protecting personal rights – and to EP committees. Hence, digital sovereignty does not seem to mainly serve as normative idea directed at the public sphere but emerges as a common denominator to which different relevant actors within the EU decision-making system can equally relate.