1. Network effects: Europe’s digital sovereignty in the Mediterranean
- Author:
- Matteo Colombo, Federico Solfrini, and Arturo Varvelli
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
- Abstract:
- Undersea internet cables are critical infrastructure as important as gas and oil pipelines, and are becoming a focus of growing geopolitical competition. Throughout the EU’s wider neighbourhood, geopolitics influences states’ decisions about who is allowed to build internet infrastructure and where they can do so. China and the US differ in their approaches, but both are racing ahead of the EU in their influence over internet infrastructure and the states that depend on it. The EU has the ambition and potential to become a sovereign digital power, but it lacks an all-encompassing strategy for the sector, in which individual governments are still the key players. The EU should set industry standards, help European telecommunications companies win business abroad, and protect internet infrastructure against hostile powers.
- Topic:
- Infrastructure, European Union, Geopolitics, Internet, and Digital Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- China, Europe, United States of America, and Mediterranean