In a new Science for Policy Brief from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), Samuele Fratini, Dr. Julia Pohle, Diletta Di Marco, Sara Thabit Gonzalez, and Gianluca Sgueo examine digital sovereignty as a geopolitical strategy for the EU in an era of weaponised interdependence and rising strategic competition over technological control.

The brief develops a multi-layered framework mapping key strategic dilemmas across the digital stack: normative influence versus international coalition-building, infrastructure de-risking versus interconnectedness, economic statecraft versus global market integration, and social cohesion versus individual liberties.

Building on this analysis, the authors propose four policy priorities: treating normative influence and coalition-building as mutually reinforcing, reducing critical infrastructure dependencies where feasible, deploying economic statecraft to mitigate coercion risks, and anchoring digital sovereignty in democratic resilience.

Read the full brief here: Digital Sovereignty as a Geopolitical Strategy