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.