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Germany and France Convene Berlin Summit to Accelerate Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

Leaders press for EU‑level reforms to expand homegrown digital infrastructure, aiming to reduce reliance on U.S. platforms.

Overview

  • About 900 participants, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron, are meeting in Berlin for the European Summit on Digital Sovereignty.
  • Organizers spotlight open‑source workplace suites—Germany’s openDesk and France’s La Suite—and present progress on a Europe‑wide digital wallet for ID documents.
  • Governments call for more cloud storage, data centers and AI models to be built and hosted in Europe so European transparency and privacy standards can apply.
  • Industry groups urge faster investment and less bureaucracy, while experts caution against expecting quick replacements for Big Tech and argue for scaling niche European solutions.
  • Concerns over U.S. legal access to data and shifting geopolitics shape the push, and the International Criminal Court says it will move to openDesk after reports of a Microsoft account suspension that the company disputes.