OSS + ELC EU 2026

Sovereignty rhetoric is creating new openings for commons-based approaches to organising around, governing, and investing in public digital infrastructure that works for a plurality of Member States. This is partly what is proposed via ongoing initiatives like the Digital Commons EDIC and the Open Internet Stack. That said, the European Commission risks absorbing them while adopting largely statist, protectionist, or purely industrial framings that hollow out their meaning.

This talk navigates that tension directly, drawing on research from the NGI Commons project to offer a clear-eyed account of where things stand and what communities, researchers, and advocates can do about it. This talk begins by mapping these concepts with precision: what each means, how they relate, and why the distinctions matter for anyone trying to advance a genuinely commons-based agenda as part of these existing initiatives.

From there, the talk examines the current EU policy moment: the sovereignty turn, the competitiveness and industrial policy logic now dominating digital debates, the AI race framing, and what these shifts mean for the digital commons and the EU’s broader tech sovereignty ambitions.