The Standard of Standards

Europe is engaged in an intense debate about digital sovereignty and global technological competition – but one crucial aspect is often overlooked: the question of standards. Yet standards are the foundation for trillion-euro markets, innovation, digital sovereignty and effective collaboration in the digital space. In our new study, “The Standard of Standards – Digital Sovereignty and Fair Competition through Cross-Sector Interoperability”, in cooperation with SINE Foundation, we show the central role interoperability plays in the emergence of large markets in the digital space, why interoperability at the application layer is so crucial and yet so often missing, and how interoperability can reduce lock-in effects, strengthen resilience, and promote fair competition. In addition, with the “Standard of Standards” we propose a technology- and sector-neutral methodology for developing interoperability standards, in order to make interoperability more systematically usable for the governance of the digital space.