{"id":438489,"date":"2025-10-24T13:16:52","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T11:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/10\/24\/berlino-e-parigi-due-idee-diverse-di-sovranita-digitale-al-consiglio-europeo\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:47:17","slug":"berlin-and-paris-diverging-visions-of-digital-sovereignty-at-the-european-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/10\/24\/berlin-and-paris-diverging-visions-of-digital-sovereignty-at-the-european-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin and Paris: diverging visions of digital sovereignty at the European Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – There is still division between Germany and France<\/strong> <\/strong>on the stance of digital sovereignty<\/strong>. <\/strong>The split emerged from the conclusions of the European Council<\/strong> <\/strong>held yesterday, October 23, in Brussels. The text speaks of “reinforcing sovereignty” and advancing the “digital transformation of Europe,”<\/strong> <\/strong>but at the same time opens up to “international partnerships with reliable countries.”<\/strong> <\/strong>Basically, between the lines, one can infer a willingness not to close the door on US companies<\/strong><\/strong>, thereby satisfying the German demand for European digitization open to the global market.<\/p>\n

The different stances of capitals<\/h3>\n

The paragraph, which is more like the expression of a compromise<\/strong> than a proper political mandate, reflects a complex convergence. <\/strong>France has long pursued a more centralized idea of digital development<\/strong>, focusing on national independence and self-sufficiency in key technologies. By contrast, Germany<\/strong> is pushing for a more open approach<\/strong>, including collaboration with US companies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The position of the two capitals has historical and economic roots. Paris can count on a cutting-edge technology industry (although not comparable to the American one), with competitive companies such as Atos<\/a>, a rival of IBM and Microsoft, or the artificial intelligence start-up Mistral<\/a>. Berlin relies on two historical brands, such as SAP and Siemens, but the German industrial base, to a large extent, depends on US software and infrastructure.<\/strong> Large Californian companies have brought massive capital<\/strong> to Germany, securing technological and, by extension, strategic influence. Only last year, Amazon<\/strong> announced investments of 8,8 billion euros<\/a> in a cloud infrastructure in the Frankfurt region to meet the growing demand for digital services in Germany.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A selfie of Macron with Merz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next appointment<\/h3>\n

In general, all European leaders share the need for greater strategic autonomy in the digital field, although it remains uncertain how and when. A key date could be November 18,<\/strong> when French President Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/strong> will meet in Berlin for a high-level summit on digital sovereignty<\/strong>. As long as the divergence between the two major European powers persists, a decisive agreement is unlikely.<\/p>\n

 The Commission’s commitment<\/p>\n

The European Commission, meanwhile, continues its legislative efforts with the Digital Services Act<\/strong><\/a>, aimed at regulating the power of US companies, and promotes investments<\/a> to develop European artificial intelligence. However, several steps are still needed to see concrete results.<\/p>\n

In this context, even the details matter: the text approved by the 27 leaders speaks, for example, of “a digital age of majority <\/strong>for accessing social media, respecting national competences.” The principle is shared, but there is disagreement over the exact age: some countries propose 15 years, others 16.<\/strong> The Commission is awaiting a decision but is already working on a European tool<\/a><\/strong> to verify the ages of those behind the screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final document speaks of ‘strengthening’ European digital sovereignty while remaining ‘open to international partnerships with reliable countries.’ France and Germany are divided, with Paris favoring a centralized approach and Berlin open to the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7891,"featured_media":434520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[26267,26261,27335,27863,32433],"class_list":["post-438489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-council-en","tag-social-media-en","tag-sovranita-digitale-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438490,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438489\/revisions\/438490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}