European Public Sphere. Towards Digital Sovereignty for Europe

Europe can strengthen its digital sovereignty by building a sovereign European digital ecosystem that is democratically accountable to its citizens. A digital ecosystem that observes European values such as transparency, openness and privacy protection, even in its technical design, can create a digital public sphere that offers fair terms of access and use, promotes public debate and safeguards the plurality that forms a key part of Europe’s identity.

A project group led by Henning Kagermann and Ulrich Wilhelm has spent the last few months studying the challenges that arise from Europe’s digital dependency and have particular implications for our democratic values. This paper describes how a European Public Sphere can be established as an alternative European ecosystem, and sets out the concrete measures that will be necessary in order to do so.