Last Updated on 4. June 2026
When the topic of digital sovereignty comes up in public administration, many people first think of technology—software, servers, the cloud, and license agreements. That’s not wrong, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. At its core, digital sovereignty is a question of power.
Who decides which systems are used? Who actually has access to citizens’ data? Who can switch systems when they no longer work, and who is effectively forced to stay?
In many government agencies, the honest answer is uncomfortable: they are dependent. On individual vendors, on proprietary systems, on contracts signed years ago that are now nearly impossible to understand. This limits not only technical capabilities but also the ability to act politically and strategically.
What Digital Sovereignty Actually Means
Digital sovereignty does not mean self-sufficiency. No government agency can or needs to develop all systems on its own. It is about making conscious choices: Which technologies align with our own values and requirements? Where are dependencies acceptable, and where are they not? And how do we maintain an overview as the system landscape becomes increasingly complex?
This requires expertise—technical, but also strategic and legal. And it requires a mindset: the willingness not to settle for the status quo, but to actively shape the future.
Initiatives like the Deutschland-Stack or the growing community around open-source solutions in government show that this is possible. Things are moving. But movement alone is not enough. It needs people to drive it forward.
