As digital value chains become increasingly complex, control over data is becoming a central issue of sovereignty.
Data sovereignty is not simply about the absence of dependencies: it relies on the ability to identify, manage and, when necessary, reconfigure them. This dynamic approach was at the heart of the discussions held by participants in the second workshop of the Chairs of Advanced Studies for Sovereignty.
This workshop on June 8th 2026 explored how data sovereignty can be defined and assessed at the level of a European company, taking into account the conditions under which data are collected, stored, accessed, shared, transferred, processed and used.
The workshop began with two prominent speakers, Thierry Breton and David Djaïz, who shared their perspectives on data sovereignty. Thierry Breton highlighted the European Union’s strengths, including its Digital Single Market, infrastructure, regulatory capabilities and capacity for cooperation. David Djaïz, for his part, highlighted the distinction between digital sovereignty and digital resilience, which are understood differently in the Anglo-Saxon world and in France. In France, digital sovereignty traditionally refers to the State, while the concept of digital resilience is more commonly applied to organisations.
To provide organisations with a common framework for measuring these risks, David Djaïz also presented the Digital Resilience Index, designed as a decision-making tool and inspired by the European Commission’s European Cloud Sovereignty Framework.
To further explore these issues, participants then worked with a maturity model designed to assess data sovereignty across five levels. The discussions identified four complementary organisational functions: monitor, decide, implement and reconfigure, providing a way of understanding sovereignty as a set of dynamic capabilities rather than as a fixed state.
During the workshop, participants proposed several criteria and indicators that could contribute to the development of a future sovereignty index, while emphasising that a high level of sovereignty does not depend on the absence of dependencies, but rather on the ability to identify, control and, where necessary, reconfigure them.
We would like to thank all participants in this workshop, which represents a key milestone in a broader exploratory project. The contributions and insights gathered provide a valuable foundation for further analysis and research.