Europe’s Quest for Digital Sovereignty: What it Means for Data Protection

The EU feels the threat of what is coined 'tech colonialism' of the U.S. and China, where the EU member states are increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure of a handful of dominant market players and the majority of European data reside in foreign clouds. The sovereignty concerns have led to a U-turn in EU policy and restoring Europe’s ‘digital sovereignty’ is now a core ambition of the European Commission. We will discuss the threats to EU digital sovereignty in order to better understand the EU Digital Strategy based on open data, open eco-systems and open source, and its disruptive impacts , which – as any regulation – bring new requirements, but also opportunities for innovation.

What you will learn:

• What the threats to EU digital sovereignty are
• How EU aims to restore digital sovereignty, and how the policy initiatives fit together
• What it means for data transfers
• If the EU data strategy can be aligned with GDPR
• What is expected of privacy professionals and how they can advise the business

Panelists

• Paul Nemitz, Principal Adviser on Justice Policy, European Commission
• Lokke Moerel, Senior Of Counsel, Morrison & Foerster; Professor, Global ICT Law, Tilburg University