At the European sovereignty summit in Berlin, leading tech associations from across Europe have adopted a joint statement. Their goal: to strengthen Europe’s digital competitiveness and secure the continent’s technological independence. The signatories include the Startup association, the German AI association, and 12 additional partner organizations from across Europe.
Verena Pausder, chair of the Startup association, emphasizes:
“If we want to remain technologically relevant, we must make our digital sovereignty a reality now. Europe must learn to grow its best ideas together – across borders.”
She calls for more investment in European technologies, fair competitive conditions for startups and scale-ups, and a stronger European single market that fosters innovation. Europe has enormous potential, it is said: a single market with 450 million people, 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises, and 17 percent of global private wealth. At the same time, 27 different regulatory systems hinder growth. The associations therefore call for, among other things, uniform rules that strengthen trust and innovation.
Uniform rules and fair competition
The tech associations advocate for a so-called “28th Regime,” a uniform European legal form for startups. This is intended to make it easier for young companies to scale across all EU countries. At the same time, they warn against weakening existing European laws such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Pausder comments:
“The DMA and DSA were not negotiated as symbolic gestures. They are Europe’s sharpest instrument for fair competition in a digital world – but only if we deploy them decisively.”
Another focus is strengthening Europe’s capital markets. Calls for a “Savings and Investments Union” are growing louder in order to mobilize growth capital for European tech companies.
Pausder criticizes:
“Europe has the potential to be the world’s greatest innovation machine – but we’re making it harder for ourselves. 27 forms of company law, 35 stock exchanges, 200 trading venues – that’s not a single market, that’s a patchwork.”
Public procurement as a lever for innovation
The associations also see room for improvement in public procurement. European digital solutions should be preferred on a non-binding basis. This is intended to strengthen confidence in European technologies and support domestic innovation. According to Pausder, public procurement accounts for 14 percent of EU GDP. Therefore, the state strengthens innovation and resilience by thinking European when it comes to future technologies.
With their joint statement, the European tech associations send a clear signal to policymakers: Europe must transition from ambition to action.
