Bavarian State Minister for Digital Affairs, Fabian Mehring, outlines a bold vision for European digital sovereignty and economic renewal. In the face of multiple crises – the Ukraine war, Germany’s economic struggles, and declining trust in politics – Mehring presents five theses for shaping a “future positive” mindset.
One key aspect is modernizing government. Everything in people’s lives “is more or less modern, innovative, digital – unless they have to deal with the state”, Mehring notes. “It must be our task to become a modern state with which citizens can identify positively once again.”
Addressing economic concerns, Mehring emphasizes the need for innovation rather than merely slowing decline in traditional industries. “Apple has 60 times of the worth of the whole Daimler AG”, he observes. “It’s completely clear that the sound of the future is set in the digital economy.”
Mehring also calls for a shift in mentality, urging Europe to embrace a “can-do” attitude and warns against repeating past mistakes of dependency.
“What we need is European technical sovereignty”, he says. “I don’t want to see us dependent again, dependent from chips from Asia, dependent from cloud infrastructure from USA.”
He also urges Europe to maintain its distinct values regardless of American political shifts: “Nobody in Europe has elected Donald Trump”, Mehring says. “Our message must be that Europe has its own values, and we must be those who enforce our own values.”
