Digital sovereignty - a strategic priority
As digitalisation accelerates and geopolitical uncertainty grows, digital sovereignty has become a strategic priority for Europe - and organisations, cities and countries all over the world. The ability to control one’s own data, services, and infrastructures—securely and independently—is essential not only for resilience, but also for democracy, trust, and economic competitiveness.This session brings together politicians, municipalities, and technology companies to discuss how open-source solutions, European cloud services, and interoperable data governance models can strengthen digital independence. The discussion connects local practices with EU-level initiatives, showing how municipal services, corporate innovation, and European regulation can together shape a sustainable digital future.
Presentations in this session:
- Nina Müller, Business Project Manager, Nextcoud: Unlocking Independence: How open source can spur digital sovereignty across Europe
Amid increasing geopolitical tensions and unstable tariffs, Europe is facing new challenges that do not only affect trade and the single market, but can also have far reaching consequences for our society and democratic values, or in short: the way we as individuals live.
With a dominant non-European force of Big Tech software solutions, how can Europe ensure its digital autonomy and increase sovereignty and collaboration across borders?
This talk will discuss opportunities, challenges and shares some insights about how we at Nextcloud look at potential solutions from our a SME software company perspective.
Key talking points:
1. open source the only way to digital sovereignty: tapping into a vibrant ecosystem to protect Europe's sovereignty and cater for a thriving digital economy
2. Change requirements: technical (interoperability), policy (procurement, competition) and mindset changes to enable digital sovereignty
3. Industry bottom up approach: What we do at Nextcloud, how we collaborate with others, how we contribute and the challenges we are facing
- Atte Harjanne, Member of the Finnish parliament
- Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Member of the Finnish parliament and member of the MyData Global board
This session is hosted by Otso Kivekäs, CEO, Haltu
