Escape Forward: Connecting dots beyond the antitrust island Europe’s Quest for Digital Emancipation with Rafael Laguna and Dietmar Harhoff
Nov 13, 2025
Rafael Laguna de la Vera, founding director of SPRIND and a serial entrepreneur, joins forces with Dietmar Harhoff, an innovation policy expert and former director at the Max Planck Institute. They dive into Europe’s urgent quest for digital sovereignty, unpacking key dependencies and choke points in the tech landscape. The duo discusses how digital capabilities drive economic growth, the causes behind Europe's lag in digital engineering, and the importance of agile policies for resilience. Their insights provide a thought-provoking look at the European tech renaissance.
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Seven-Layer Digital Dependency
- Europe is dependent across a seven-layer digital stack from minerals to AI applications.
- Having negotiating power over key layers, not full autarky, is the realistic goal for sovereignty.
Choke Points Versus Pain Points
- Distinguish tolerable pain points from life-threatening choke points that can be weaponized.
- Resilience means controlling enough choke points to avoid being coerced by external actors.
Digital Is The New Industrial Base
- Digital and AI are general-purpose technologies that reshape every industry and enable new value chains.
- Failing to build digital foundations risks turning Europe into an 'industrial museum' as others control the downstream wealth.