{"id":13491,"title":"How interoperability strengthens digital sovereignty and fair competition in Europe","link":"https:\/\/www.reframetech.de\/en\/2025\/12\/11\/how-interoperability-strengthens-digital-sovereignty-and-fair-competition-in-europe\/","date":"12\/11\/2025","date_unix":1765439387,"date_modified_unix":1765449607,"date_iso":"2025-12-11T07:49:47+00:00","content":"

In a new study, we show why cross-sector interoperability is crucial for digital sovereignty and better cooperation in the digital space, and how this can be achieved.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin in mid-November, representatives from politics and business discussed Europe\u2019s position in global technology competition. The focus was on artificial intelligence and home-grown European solutions \u2013 undoubtedly key topics. Yet one crucial aspect is often overlooked: the question of standards.<\/p>\n

Standards as the foundational pillars of the digital space.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Standards in the digital space are more than technical specifications \u2013 they form the foundation of the digital economy. Their importance is comparable to standards in the traditional industrial world, such as the DIN paper format. Basic internet standards illustrate this clearly: the Transmission Control Protocol\/Internet Protocol (TCP\/IP) is the fundamental protocol on which the entire internet is based and which enables markets on a trillion-euro scale; the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) allows billions of emails to be sent every day.<\/p>\n

Interoperability is crucial here. This refers to the ability of different systems to communicate with each other. Open standards such as TCP\/IP create the scalability and efficiency that make the success of the digital space possible in the first place.<\/p>\n

However, this structural openness of the internet has not carried over to the application layer \u2013 the world of software and platforms we use every day.<\/p>\n

Lock-in instead of choice.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At the application layer, closed ecosystems dominate today. Large technology companies do build on open internet standards, but the services they offer on top of them are, for the most part, neither standardised nor interoperable. They use their market positions to create \u201cwalled gardens\u201d \u2013 closed systems that lock users and data into a given platform.<\/p>\n

The implications for digital sovereignty are significant:<\/p>\n

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  • Availability:<\/strong> The robustness of digital services depends on whether components and providers can be substituted when necessary. Where interoperability is lacking and only proprietary interfaces exist, \u201csingle points of failure\u201d emerge: if a provider fails, changes its terms and conditions or withdraws a product, core functions can only be migrated to alternative solutions with great effort, if at all. This creates structural dependencies.<\/li>\n
  • Choice:<\/strong> Open standards enable competition because users can switch between providers without losing data or networks. A lack of interoperability, by contrast, leads to so-called \u201clock-in\u201d effects. This is illustrated by modern messaging services, where switching often means losing contacts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    This discrepancy between the network and application layers is a key structural problem: the openness of the infrastructure is not automatically reflected in the applications we use every day, even though they are often essential to the functioning of our economy and our public institutions.<\/p>\n

    Interoperability requires a multidimensional approach<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    With the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), the European Commission has developed a systematic approach to achieving interoperability at the application layer as well. The EIF distinguishes four levels:<\/p>\n