The pact Europe needs for digital sovereignty

In the 20th century, a nation’s economic sovereignty was measured by its ability to build roads, ports, railways and energy networks. In the 21st century, it will depend increasingly on the ability to build, protect and govern strategic digital infrastructure, from which economic competitiveness, national security and technological autonomy derive. Artificial intelligence is accelerating a transformation that many continue to interpret as a software revolution. In reality, AI represents the apex of a pyramid resting on telecommunications networks, energy systems, data centres, semiconductors and cloud infrastructure. Without these foundations, there can be no algorithms, no innovation on an industrial scale, and no digital sovereignty.

This is why digital transformation is not merely a technological issue, but an industrial, economic and strategic one. It is hardly surprising that the GSMA’s analysis of the infrastructure needs of the European mobile industry, the European Commission’s report on the Digital Decade and the Magnifica Humanitas initiative all converge on one essential point: Europe’s digital future will depend on its ability to invest in the infrastructure that enables its development. The growing dependence on critical technologies developed and controlled outside the continent is no longer merely an economic vulnerability. It has become a matter of competitiveness, security and strategic autonomy. Digital infrastructure is now an essential component of European resilience, and ensuring its operational continuity and capacity for evolution is a shared responsibility between the public interest and private investment. Meanwhile, demand for connectivity continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. In the first quarter of 2026, mobile data traffic in Europe increased by over 20 per cent compared with the previous year, and is set to more than double over the next five years, driven by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the digitalisation of entire sectors of the economy. This is a structural trend that makes digital infrastructure increasingly central to the continent’s competitiveness.

According to the GSMA, around €475 billion will be needed over the next ten years to make European mobile networks globally competitive. The European Commission also highlights the need to accelerate investment in connectivity, computing capacity, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure. All this will require the mobilisation of capital commensurate with Europe’s industrial ambitions. The availability of capital, however, is not sufficient. Europe continues to operate through markets, rules and authorisation processes that are often fragmented; if it is to compete with the United States and China, it will need to promote greater integration of its digital market and create conditions that enable faster, more efficient and scalable investment. European digital sovereignty cannot simply be the sum of twenty-seven national strategies. It requires a common vision, capable of prioritising the competitiveness of Europe as a whole over inevitable local interests.

Digital infrastructure also requires planning, specialist expertise and a long-term investment horizon. This is why the role of specialist infrastructure operators is essential: they ensure efficiency, resilience and sustainability throughout the entire lifecycle of the assets, enabling telecoms operators to focus their resources on networks, services and innovation. However, investment also requires regulatory stability and legal certainty. Trust is the most important asset for infrastructure, because no investor can commit resources for decades in the absence of regulatory predictability and respect for freely entered into agreements. Contractual certainty protects not only economic operators, but Europe’s very ability to finance its own future. The issue, however, is not merely an industrial one. In the age of artificial intelligence, digital inclusion becomes a prerequisite for the success of this transformation. Every technological revolution creates extraordinary opportunities, but it can also widen inequalities; for this reason, the roll-out of infrastructure must go hand in hand with the development of skills, education and digital literacy.

If this is the case, a question arises that goes beyond the technological dimension: if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were to be written today, would it also recognise the right not to be excluded from the digital world? This is the principle that runs through "Magnifica Humanitas", according to which universal connectivity is not merely an economic objective, but a social responsibility that broadens people’s opportunities and makes the exercise of rights more effective. This same line of thought raises another question: can a transformation that expands rights truly be called such if it does not also assume the responsibilities it generates? This is the theme running through Laudato si’, reminding us that all genuine progress must be measured against our responsibility towards our common home and towards future generations. The question, therefore, is not whether Europe will participate in the digital transformation, but what role it intends to play: that of a mere user of technologies developed elsewhere, or that of a key player in its own innovation and industrial future.

The technologies exist, the skills are there, and capital can be mobilised. The real challenge lies in creating the conditions for these elements to converge towards a common project, based on collaboration between institutions, businesses and society, on mutual trust and on the ability to prioritise long-term value over short-term considerations. The difference between digital dependence and digital sovereignty, between falling behind and leadership, will not be determined by algorithms, but by the ability to invest today in the infrastructure, skills and institutions that will make Europe’s future possible. Economic history teaches us that major transformations do not reward those who observe them with clarity, but those who prepare for them with foresight.