European digital sovereignty and the political legacy of Alcide De Gasperi took centre stage at a conference held on Tuesday, October 13, at the Sala Montelupo in Domagnano, San Marino, on the occasion of the presentation of the book “Alcide De Gasperi. Rivoluzione, Riforme, Libertà” (“Alcide De Gasperi. Revolution, Reforms, Freedom”).
The event, sponsored by the Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs, brought together representatives from institutions as well as the academic, ecclesiastical and cultural worlds. The day began with an audience granted to the delegation of speakers by the Captains Regent, followed by a public meeting dedicated to the enduring relevance of the statesman’s thought.
After an introduction by Giuseppe Fioroni, former Italian Minister of Education, speakers took turns addressing the relationship between the European integration project launched after the Second World War and the challenges facing the Union today.
Among the speakers was Nicola Barone, chairman of TIM San Marino, who addressed the theme “De Gasperi and European sovereignty in the digital age,” drawing connections between the Ventotene Manifesto, De Gasperi’s thinking and the Draghi report on European competitiveness.
Barone pointed out that digital sovereignty today represents a matter of strategic autonomy and the capacity to make independent choices. While coal and steel formed the foundation of the first phase of European integration, today it is sectors such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and semiconductors that call for a shared response among member states.
“We don’t need to recover twenty-seven national technological sovereignties, but to build one European capability,” Barone said, stressing the need to develop common tools to meet international technological competition.
In his address, the chairman of TIM San Marino also recalled the principle that innovation must remain at the service of people, rights and democracy, warning against technological development turning into new forms of dependency.
In closing, Barone revisited De Gasperi’s image of the “common European house,” linking the construction of shared digital sovereignty to the political project of the founding fathers of European integration and to the idea of “our homeland, Europe.”
The conference thus explored the relationship between De Gasperi’s historical legacy and the prospects facing contemporary Europe, with particular attention to cooperation among countries and the shared management of new technologies.
