The European Commission has published the strategies “Europe fit for the digital age2”and “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future3”, which prove that digitalisation in Europe has top priority for the Commission. This European approach aims at giving citizens, businesses and governments control over the digital transformation. Euritas considers digital sovereignty as crucial for realising this vision. This paper proposes guiding principles for preserving the digital sovereignty of public administrations and citizens and highlights the fields in which Euritas is actively working to achieve this goal.

Euritas proposes a network of cloud infrastructures for public administrations in the EU and EFTA, built and maintained by the public ICT service providers, who can ensure the secure and confidential handling of data moving through it. Correspondingly standards for interoperability and a framework for cooperation of public ICT service providers have to be agreed between Member States. Cloud services provided to the public administration need to adhere to a set of minimum requirements to guarantee the privacy of European citizen`s data. These requirements should be codified in common European standards.

It is imperative for public entities to not only embrace AI but to do so with careful consideration, ensuring that technology enhances human capability without compromising fairness or transparency. However, a large number of precautions and measures are needed to ensure the framework conditions for the use of AI in the public sector. In addition to a comprehensive exchange of experiences and solutions of AI in public administration, harmonisation is necessary in many areas. Only by building on common ethic frameworks that provide for a minimum set of criteria will we be able to achieve the exchange of solutions. Therefore, the measures proposed by Euritas cover a wide range from exchange platforms to harmonisation efforts.