Building bridges to European Digital Sovereignty

Building bridges to European Digital Sovereignty About the author James Lovegrove More like this Sovereign AI architecture: Scaling distributed training with Kubeflow Trainer and Feast on Red Hat OpenShift AI Red Hat Enterprise Linux now available on the AWS European Sovereign Cloud Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share Europe stands at a critical digital crossroads. As the European Commission shapes the European Open Digital Ecosystem Strategy , the conversation has shifted toward a vital objective: achieving true digital sovereignty while driving global competitiveness. For decades, Red Hat has catalyzed open source adoption across the European Union. We advocate for ‘default-to-open’ EU policies because they help unlock Europe’s full potential. From improving citizen public services with the València City Council and ITZBund to modernizing IT for major European entities such as BBVA , Volkswagen and Airbus , our mission remains consistent: fostering open, borderless innovation. Redefining sovereignty through control and transparency In our formal response to the EU’s call for evidence , we defend the core tenets of open source. True digital sovereignty is not defined by a vendor’s headquarters, regardless of the region or country. Indeed, a potential flag waving exercise within a global community risks obfuscating the underlying core fact of sovereignty: That it’s an organization's ability to exert control over its own digital infrastructure, data, and technology. This positions open source as the bedrock of any sovereignty by providing a clear exit path through open standards and protecting European entities from the constraints of a single proprietary stack. This transparency makes it well positioned for critical infrastructure. The Global Commons Over Geographic Silos Open source is, by definition, a global digital commons which celebrates inclusivity of ideas and meritocracy. It does not adhere to national borders.