Europe’s digitalization – From online shopping to remote working

Dating apps, delivery services, remote work and smart homes. Today, our lives are more digitalized than ever.
At the same time, the vulnerabilities that come with globalization are becoming increasingly obvious. And Europe’s dependency on international tech giants is an ever-greater threat.
The coronavirus pandemic — and the restrictions that came with it — turned the lives of people in Europe upside down. But they also showed us how useful new technologies can be.
Today, it’s hard to imagine our daily lives without remote working, online shopping, video calls and countless useful apps.
Despite all this, Europe is lagging far behind the rest of the globe, when it comes to the race to digitalize. The EU has been outpaced by both the USA and China. Europe’s fragmented and isolated market, scant investments, and dependency on American corporations have all contributed to the problem.
But Europe’s digital sovereignty is more crucial now than ever. As a handful of US-based online giants evade all regulatory controls, appearing to act entirely according to their own whims, European citizens are becoming increasingly vulnerable to fake news, precarious work, and data theft.
Digital sovereignty is important to the preservation of democracy, as well as for the safety of European citizens and consumers.