Digital Sovereignty: An Agenda for Public-Private-Commons Cooperation
A documented digital dependency
Digital technologies are increasingly controlled by a small number of dominant providers whose products and services have become deeply embedded in everyday life. This concentration of power exposes citizens, public authorities and businesses to a broad range of risks, including economic, security and surveillance, political and governance-related risks.
Digital sovereignty has therefore become a shared concern across France and Europe, not only for public administrations and businesses, but also for citizens. In the citizens' consultation we conducted earlier this year, a majority of the 6,000 respondents identified this issue as a priority.
A report built with the stakeholders
To develop a collective response to these challenges, the French AI and Digital Council (CIANum) established a dedicated working group led by six appointed experts:
- Guillaume Poupard, Co-Chair of the CIANum and Chief Trust Officer at Orange;
- Sébastien Soriano, Member of the CIANum and Director General of the French National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN);
- Céline Colucci, Member of the CIANum and Executive Director of Les Interconnectés;
- Dorie Bruyas, President of MedNum;
- Olivier Wong-Hee-Kam, Vice-President for Digital Affairs at the University of Rennes;
- Aymeril Hoang, Director of EuroCommons, Caisse des Dépôts Group.
Following a comprehensive series of hearings involving around thirty stakeholders from the public sector in France and across Europe, the private sector, the digital commons ecosystem, the free and open source software community, professional associations and the research community, this report sets out a roadmap for strengthening coordination between the public sector, the private sector and the digital commons in support of digital sovereignty.
Bringing ecosystems together through public-private coalitions
France's and Europe's strategic autonomy requires new forms of action capable of addressing both technical complexity and the scale of the investment required. This report recommends breaking down institutional silos and moving beyond the traditional public–private divide by creating coalitions that bring together stakeholders around shared projects, enabling them to cooperate in developing sovereign solutions rather than competing against one another. It also takes advantage of the favourable context created by the establishment of Ariane, the new French authority for digital affairs and artificial intelligence, to advance this coalition-based approach.
The approach advocated in this report places particular emphasis on the digital commons, open foundational technologies and governance principles that are especially well suited to public-private collaboration. Their inherently open and collective model offers tangible opportunities to achieve critical mass and foster innovation.
Realising this ambition will require a cultural shift, together with a clear definition of responsibilities and stronger resources to support and coordinate these communities.
To turn this vision into reality, the report recommends establishing a Digital Commons Factory. Its role would be to identify priority building blocks through a dynamic mapping of strategic dependencies, bring together public and private stakeholders alongside digital commons communities, and oversee the development and long-term sustainability of co-designed open blocks.
Public authorities have an essential role to play by:
- bringing stakeholders together and animating communities while ensuring the long-term sustainability of projects;
- using public procurement as a strategic lever to support and accelerate high-priority projects that are delivered by public-private consortia;
- acting as the lead adopter of the blocks developed.
Delivering this ambition also requires innovative funding models and appropriate legal frameworks, including:
- the creation of a dedicated fund, managed by Ariane, to support strategic projects;
- the use of legal structures suited to commons-based governance, including public-private hybrid models and multi-stakeholder governance arrangements;
- the systematic adoption of open standards to ensure interoperability and prevent fragmentation.
Digital sovereignty cannot be achieved within an isolated national framework. These efforts must be pursued at the European level, in particular through the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) for Digital Commons. Its mandate could be strengthened and expanded to make it the European hub for the digital commons by entrusting it with three key responsibilities:
- systematically mapping existing projects to avoid duplication and encourage synergies;
- funding strategic digital commons that have already demonstrated their value;
- coordinating the community to ensure effective collaboration and balanced governance.
The Council would like to thank all those who took part in the hearings for their expertise, their vision and their important contribution to this report. A full list of contributors is provided in the appendix.
