#34 A Belief in Big Solutions: The Commission's Tech Sovereignty Package w/ Dr. Anselm Küsters

This interview with Dr. Anselm Küsters explores the EU's Tech Sovereignty Package, focusing on sovereignty as a capacity to act and the role of open source in fostering resilience and competition in Europe's digital infrastructure.The Tech Sovereignty Package we discuss throughout the conversation can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1187. During the conversation, Anselm and I also raised several developments and sources that can be useful to understand the EU's broader sovereignty strategy. Click on them below to go to them directly: - 00:23, The Draghi report: https://commission.europa.eu/topics/competitiveness/draghi-report_en. - 01:08, Dr Küsters' work on sovereignty as a precondition for openness: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351046050_The_Fight_for_Digital_Sovereignty_What_It_Is_and_Why_It_Matters_Especially_for_the_EU. - 01:34, Dr. Küsters' initial assessment of the Tech Sovereignty Package, co-authored with Phillip Eckhardt and Dr. Matthias Kullas: https://www.cep.eu/eu-topics/details/eu-tech-sovereignty-package.html. - 01:52, The German approach towards sovereignty: https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/FS/1086286_Rahmenprogramm_FITS2030_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=6. - 01:55, An analysis of Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty: https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/90975147/CarlSchmittsDefinitionofSovereignty.pdf. - 04:05, The EU's 2020 Data Strategy: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/strategy-data. - 06:23, Reporting on the EC's potential issuing of equivalence decisions to US hyperscalers: https://www.euractiv.com/news/commissions-sovereign-cloud-plan-doesnt-push-us-hyperscalers-out/. - 07:49, Dr. Küsters' work on 'Coping with the Digital Trilemma? Trade-Offs and Risks in EU Digital Policy', co-authored with Cecilia Emma Sottilotta: https://doi.org/10.1002/epa2.70023. - 10:41, W.B. Gallie on 'Essentially Contested Concepts': https://www.jstor.org/stable/4544562. - 12:28, Dr. Küsters' Small is Beautiful 2.0 book (available in German): https://www.herder.de/geschichte-politik/shop/p4/93614-small-is-beautiful-20-klappenbroschur/. - 13:46, A summary in English of the Small is Beautiful 2.0 printed publication: https://commongroundeurope.eu/blog/small-is-beautiful-2-0-how-digital-decentralisation-can-strengthen-democracy/. - 13:50, Dr. Küsters' weekly Substack, The Small Signal: https://anselmkuesters.substack.com/. - 15:08, The EU's Digital Wallet: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/EUDIGITALIDENTITYWALLET/pages/694487738/EU+Digital+Identity+Wallet+Home.- 17:36, Research on open source demonstrating that it reduces security risks: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3736426.3736467. - 17:48, Linus's Law, coined by Eric S. Raymond in his book The Cathedral and the Bazaar, means that if a codebase is visible to a large community of developers and users, problems will be identified and fixed quickly.- 18:27, Feasibility study on funding needed for open source maintenance: https://eu-stf.openforumeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/EU-STF-Feasibility-Study_final.pdf. - 18:33, The European Competitiveness Fund: https://commission.europa.eu/publications/european-competitiveness-fund_en.Key moments00:00 Introduction to EU's Tech Sovereignty Package03:54 Understanding Sovereignty in the Digital Sphere07:41 The Four Tiers of Sovereignty10:24 Trade-offs in EU Digital Policy13:12 Open Source and Democratic Resilience16:27 The Importance of Open Source for CompetitivenessTo learn more about Dr. Alba Ribera Martínez and her research, we invite you to visit her website: https://www.albariberamartinez.com.She also writes, from time to time, in her newsletter, the DMA Agora, about the latest developments surrounding the European regulation: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7344021393451184128.