May 2026
Sovereignty in Practice: A New Path
Beyond all the talks, Europe keeps wondering how to truly achieve digital sovereignty. Is it perhaps time to move beyond traditional protectionist measures and form-based regulatory compliance, and rather focus on building attractive services? To answer this question and identify new ways to deliver change, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Roundtable on ‘Sovereignty in Practice: A New Path for Europe’s Digital Success,’ taking a deep dive into the potential of smart public procurement, automated compliance and flexible innovation funding.
During the session, Professor David Eaves, co-deputy director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London, delivered a Jean Monnet Lecture on how the European Union can chart a bold, capability-driven course toward genuine digital autonomy: one grounded in building lasting institutional capacity and technological excellence. A high-level discussion on funding, public-sector collaboration with startups and digital infrastructure followed, featuring the leading experiences of, among many others, Ibrahim Köran, head of GovTech, Heliad AG; Frank Leyman, head of international relations, Federal Public Service Policy and Support (FPS BOSA), Belgium; Ewa Malz, head of unit, strategy, digitalisation, better regulation and economic analysis, directorate-general for environment, European Commission; Idoia Ortiz de Artiñano Goñi, founder and CEO, Gobe; Leontina Sandu, director, digital enablers and innovation, directorate-general for digital services, European Commission; and Kai Zenner, head of office and digital policy adviser to Member of the European Parliament Axel Voss.
The roundtable also served as the launchpad for Better Environmental Protection, Less Reporting Burden: How a Digital Compliance Scale-Up Initiative Can Lower Compliance Costs for Companies and Increase the Effectiveness of Regulations, a new policy brief by the Lisbon Council.