Last week, European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager took part in an online debate on digital sovereignty in the age of pandemics organised by the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE).

The debate focused on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Europe’s digital sovereignty and the ambitions established by the European Commission at the beginning of its mandate in 2019, including topics such as the digital single market, European champions, online platforms as well as the European recovery planning.

“Digital sovereignty is about being able to do things, it is what is needed to control things”, Vestager started.

During the debate, Vestager said that, in the aftermath of the Coronavirus crisis, a new world order that highlights the need to move a modern multilateralism to address global problems will be established. For this, the EU needs to boost its capacity to be sovereign and work together to become more resilient regionally and become a stronger Union with a key role globally.

“The only reason that the US and China are tech giants is because they have a single market. Europe is underestimating the value of single market. When we assume the value, we will be able to compete globally,” Vestager continued.

Moreover, Vestager stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the advantages of digitalisation but also the need of a European regulatory framework. She stressed that new measures and tools will be needed to ensure competition and digital transition but that European values will always be the baseline. The original plan regarding the Digital Services Act will not be modified.

You can watch the full event below.

If you can’t view the video, click here.