The EU’s Digital Sovereignty and Quantum Technologies: To What End?

The EU’s Digital Sovereignty and Quantum Technologies: To What End? external link

Vogiatzoglou, P. & van Hoboken, J.

Forthcoming in Law, Innovation and Technology, 2025

Abstract

Digital sovereignty, as a core EU policy objective, conveys the urgency of reducing dependencies, safeguarding European values, and regaining control over data, infrastructure, and technologies through regulation, strategic investments and geopolitical partnerships. However, it is a broad term encompassing different elements, and achieving some form of digital sovereignty remains questionable. This paper argues that digital sovereignty is less about what the term tends to convey and more about legitimising points of control. First, we examine the evolution of sovereignty and resulting regulation in relation to digital infrastructures and technologies. Second, we focus on the less-studied field of quantum technologies, which has become a recent anchor point for EU digital sovereignty policy. We highlight how, underlying the efforts to assert control and attain independence, digital sovereignty operates performatively to construct the European identity and produces tangible effects, such as the allocation of funds towards uncertain technological goals and select European actors.

RIS

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Vogiatzoglou, P.
AU  - van Hoboken, J.
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025-09-11
T1  - The EU’s Digital Sovereignty and Quantum Technologies: To What End?
JO  - Forthcoming in Law, Innovation and Technology
UR  - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5461374
AB  - Digital sovereignty, as a core EU policy objective, conveys the urgency of reducing dependencies, safeguarding European values, and regaining control over data, infrastructure, and technologies through regulation, strategic investments and geopolitical partnerships. However, it is a broad term encompassing different elements, and achieving some form of digital sovereignty remains questionable. This paper argues that digital sovereignty is less about what the term tends to convey and more about legitimising points of control. First, we examine the evolution of sovereignty and resulting regulation in relation to digital infrastructures and technologies. Second, we focus on the less-studied field of quantum technologies, which has become a recent anchor point for EU digital sovereignty policy. We highlight how, underlying the efforts to assert control and attain independence, digital sovereignty operates performatively to construct the European identity and produces tangible effects, such as the allocation of funds towards uncertain technological goals and select European actors.
K1  - Digital sovereignty
K1  - quantum technologies
ER  -

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Bibtex

Article{nokey,
	title = {The EU’s Digital Sovereignty and Quantum Technologies: To What End?},
	author = {Vogiatzoglou, P. and van Hoboken, J.},
	year = {2025},
	date = {2025-09-11},
	journal = {Forthcoming in Law, Innovation and Technology},
	abstract = {Digital sovereignty, as a core EU policy objective, conveys the urgency of reducing dependencies, safeguarding European values, and regaining control over data, infrastructure, and technologies through regulation, strategic investments and geopolitical partnerships. However, it is a broad term encompassing different elements, and achieving some form of digital sovereignty remains questionable. This paper argues that digital sovereignty is less about what the term tends to convey and more about legitimising points of control. First, we examine the evolution of sovereignty and resulting regulation in relation to digital infrastructures and technologies. Second, we focus on the less-studied field of quantum technologies, which has become a recent anchor point for EU digital sovereignty policy. We highlight how, underlying the efforts to assert control and attain independence, digital sovereignty operates performatively to construct the European identity and produces tangible effects, such as the allocation of funds towards uncertain technological goals and select European actors.},
	keywords = {Digital sovereignty, quantum technologies},
}

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The EU’s Quest for Digital Sovereignty: A Matter of Quantum Innovation? external link

Vogiatzoglou, P.

Digital Society, vol. 4, 2025

Abstract

The EU increasingly seeks to assert its digital sovereignty by boosting innovation and norm-setting in, among other, quantum technologies. This objective is generally reflected in numerous policy documents and crystallised in the Digital Decade Policy Programme, which sets specific targets to achieve it. The EU policy documents recognise a world-changing potential of quantum technologies whilst remaining vigilant due to their potential disruptive impact. This white paper maps the way the ambition of digital sovereignty is interwoven with the development of quantum technologies in the EU digital policy and legislation. It documents empirical work, identifying thirty policy and legal documents which were produced during the past five years and bind digital sovereignty and quantum technologies together. The aim of this white paper is to bring attention to and invite further examination of the complex interrelation between digital sovereignty and quantum innovation. In this way, the white paper wishes to spark a broader conversation on the feasibility and desirability of emerging and future tech governance approaches.

Links

Digital sovereignty, innovation, quantum technologies

RIS

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Vogiatzoglou, P.
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025-03-10
T1  - The EU’s Quest for Digital Sovereignty: A Matter of Quantum Innovation?
JO  - Digital Society
VL  - 4
UR  - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44206-025-00162-1
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-025-00162-1
AB  - The EU increasingly seeks to assert its digital sovereignty by boosting innovation and norm-setting in, among other, quantum technologies. This objective is generally reflected in numerous policy documents and crystallised in the Digital Decade Policy Programme, which sets specific targets to achieve it. The EU policy documents recognise a world-changing potential of quantum technologies whilst remaining vigilant due to their potential disruptive impact. This white paper maps the way the ambition of digital sovereignty is interwoven with the development of quantum technologies in the EU digital policy and legislation. It documents empirical work, identifying thirty policy and legal documents which were produced during the past five years and bind digital sovereignty and quantum technologies together. The aim of this white paper is to bring attention to and invite further examination of the complex interrelation between digital sovereignty and quantum innovation. In this way, the white paper wishes to spark a broader conversation on the feasibility and desirability of emerging and future tech governance approaches.
K1  - Digital sovereignty
K1  - innovation
K1  - quantum technologies
ER  -

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Bibtex

Article{nokey,
	title = {The EU’s Quest for Digital Sovereignty: A Matter of Quantum Innovation?},
	author = {Vogiatzoglou, P.},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-025-00162-1},
	year = {2025},
	date = {2025-03-10},
	journal = {Digital Society},
	volume = {4},
	abstract = {The EU increasingly seeks to assert its digital sovereignty by boosting innovation and norm-setting in, among other, quantum technologies. This objective is generally reflected in numerous policy documents and crystallised in the Digital Decade Policy Programme, which sets specific targets to achieve it. The EU policy documents recognise a world-changing potential of quantum technologies whilst remaining vigilant due to their potential disruptive impact. This white paper maps the way the ambition of digital sovereignty is interwoven with the development of quantum technologies in the EU digital policy and legislation. It documents empirical work, identifying thirty policy and legal documents which were produced during the past five years and bind digital sovereignty and quantum technologies together. The aim of this white paper is to bring attention to and invite further examination of the complex interrelation between digital sovereignty and quantum innovation. In this way, the white paper wishes to spark a broader conversation on the feasibility and desirability of emerging and future tech governance approaches.},
	keywords = {Digital sovereignty, innovation, quantum technologies},
}

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Digital sovereignty, digital infrastructures, and quantum horizons

Gordon, G.

AI & Society, vol. 39, pp: 125–137, 2024

Abstract

This article holds that governmental investments in quantum technologies speak to the imaginable futures of digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, two major areas of change driven by related technologies like AI and Big Data, among other things, in international law today. Under intense development today for future interpolation into digital systems that they may alter, quantum technologies occupy a sort of liminal position, rooted in existing assemblages of computational technologies while pointing to new horizons for them. The possibilities they raise are neither certain nor determinate, but active investments in them (legal, political and material investments) offer perspective on digital technology-driven influences on an international legal imagination. In contributing to visions of the future that are guiding ambitions for digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, quantum technologies condition digital technology-driven changes to international law and legal imagination in the present. Privileging observation and description, I adapt and utilize a diffractive method with the aim to discern what emerges out of the interference among the several related things assembled for this article, including material technologies and legal institutions. In conclusion, I observe ambivalent changes to an international legal imagination, changes which promise transformation but appear nonetheless to reproduce current distributions of power and resources.

RIS

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gordon, G.
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024-02-13
T1  - Digital sovereignty, digital infrastructures, and quantum horizons
JO  - AI & Society
VL  - 39
SP  - 125–137
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01729-7
AB  - This article holds that governmental investments in quantum technologies speak to the imaginable futures of digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, two major areas of change driven by related technologies like AI and Big Data, among other things, in international law today. Under intense development today for future interpolation into digital systems that they may alter, quantum technologies occupy a sort of liminal position, rooted in existing assemblages of computational technologies while pointing to new horizons for them. The possibilities they raise are neither certain nor determinate, but active investments in them (legal, political and material investments) offer perspective on digital technology-driven influences on an international legal imagination. In contributing to visions of the future that are guiding ambitions for digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, quantum technologies condition digital technology-driven changes to international law and legal imagination in the present. Privileging observation and description, I adapt and utilize a diffractive method with the aim to discern what emerges out of the interference among the several related things assembled for this article, including material technologies and legal institutions. In conclusion, I observe ambivalent changes to an international legal imagination, changes which promise transformation but appear nonetheless to reproduce current distributions of power and resources.
K1  - Digital sovereignty
K1  - quantum technologies
ER  -

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Bibtex

Article{nokey,
	title = {Digital sovereignty, digital infrastructures, and quantum horizons},
	author = {Gordon, G.},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01729-7},
	year = {2024},
	date = {2024-02-13},
	journal = {AI & Society},
	volume = {39},
	pages = {125–137},
	abstract = {This article holds that governmental investments in quantum technologies speak to the imaginable futures of digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, two major areas of change driven by related technologies like AI and Big Data, among other things, in international law today. Under intense development today for future interpolation into digital systems that they may alter, quantum technologies occupy a sort of liminal position, rooted in existing assemblages of computational technologies while pointing to new horizons for them. The possibilities they raise are neither certain nor determinate, but active investments in them (legal, political and material investments) offer perspective on digital technology-driven influences on an international legal imagination. In contributing to visions of the future that are guiding ambitions for digital sovereignty and digital infrastructures, quantum technologies condition digital technology-driven changes to international law and legal imagination in the present. Privileging observation and description, I adapt and utilize a diffractive method with the aim to discern what emerges out of the interference among the several related things assembled for this article, including material technologies and legal institutions. In conclusion, I observe ambivalent changes to an international legal imagination, changes which promise transformation but appear nonetheless to reproduce current distributions of power and resources.},
	keywords = {Digital sovereignty, quantum technologies},
}

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The General Data Protection Regulation though the lens of digital sovereignty external link

Irion, K.

2022

Abstract

This short contribution will present and discuss the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the lens of ‘digital sovereignty. When high-ranking representatives of EU institutions endorsed digital sovereignty this has been interpreted as a signpost for a new-found assertiveness in EU digital policy. However, digital sovereignty is conceptually fuzzy and is used to animate a wide spectrum of geopolitical, normative, and industrial ambitions. In the context of the GDPR it makes sense to operationalize digital sovereignty as the ability of rules to assert authority in a global and interdependent digital ecosystem. Conceived this way, I will reflect on how the GDPR wields transnational capacity by design in the form of safeguards against inbound and outbound circumvention.

RIS

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Irion, K.
PY  - 0328
DA  - 2022-03-28
T1  - The General Data Protection Regulation though the lens of digital sovereignty
UR  - https://www.ivir.nl/irion-gdpr-and-digital-sovereignty-11mar22/
AB  - This short contribution will present and discuss the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the lens of ‘digital sovereignty. When high-ranking representatives of EU institutions endorsed digital sovereignty this has been interpreted as a signpost for a new-found assertiveness in EU digital policy. However, digital sovereignty is conceptually fuzzy and is used to animate a wide spectrum of geopolitical, normative, and industrial ambitions. In the context of the GDPR it makes sense to operationalize digital sovereignty as the ability of rules to assert authority in a global and interdependent digital ecosystem. Conceived this way, I will reflect on how the GDPR wields transnational capacity by design in the form of safeguards against inbound and outbound circumvention.
K1  - Digital sovereignty
K1  - GDPR
K1  - transfer of personal data
K1  - transnational capacity
ER  -

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Bibtex

Article{Irion2022,
	title = {The General Data Protection Regulation though the lens of digital sovereignty},
	author = {Irion, K.},
	year = {0328},
	date = {2022-03-28},
	abstract = {This short contribution will present and discuss the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through the lens of ‘digital sovereignty. When high-ranking representatives of EU institutions endorsed digital sovereignty this has been interpreted as a signpost for a new-found assertiveness in EU digital policy. However, digital sovereignty is conceptually fuzzy and is used to animate a wide spectrum of geopolitical, normative, and industrial ambitions. In the context of the GDPR it makes sense to operationalize digital sovereignty as the ability of rules to assert authority in a global and interdependent digital ecosystem. Conceived this way, I will reflect on how the GDPR wields transnational capacity by design in the form of safeguards against inbound and outbound circumvention.},
	keywords = {Digital sovereignty, GDPR, transfer of personal data, transnational capacity},
}

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