{"id":390432,"date":"2026-04-02T14:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcloud.com\/?p=390432"},"modified":"2026-04-07T16:14:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:14:45","slug":"digital-sovereignty-starts-with-procurement-interview-with-prof-dr-dennis-kenji-kipker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcloud.com\/es\/blog\/digital-sovereignty-starts-with-procurement-interview-with-prof-dr-dennis-kenji-kipker\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital sovereignty starts with procurement: Interview with Prof. Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Digital sovereignty is no longer just a policy debate, but a question of real-world decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore what that means in practice, we spoke with Professor Dennis-Kenji Kipker ahead of the Nextcloud Summit 2026<\/a> in Munich, Germany, on June 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working at the intersection of law and technology, he advises governments and institutions on cybersecurity, global regulation, and digital resilience, from Europe to the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover why he thinks sovereignty starts with procurement, where Europe still falls short, and what it will take to turn ambition into reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. How do you define digital sovereignty, and how do you apply it in your daily life? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital sovereignty is, first and foremost, a procurement question, not a definitional one. No amount of conceptual debate makes us more digitally sovereign in practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both consumers and organizations need to understand that political declarations alone do not produce sovereignty. Every single procurement decision is a vote for or against greater digital independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital sovereignty is not something that can be distributed by decree across a country like water from a watering can in the form of political decisions. It materializes through concrete choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is precisely why I believe the state has a co-responsibility to make digitally sovereign solutions accessible to everyone, not just to large institutions with dedicated IT departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own life, I try to use sovereign tools and solutions wherever it is feasible. And frankly, in the personal sphere, that turns out to be considerably easier than most people initially assume.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Every procurement decision is a vote for or against digital independence.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Prof. Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker<\/h6><\/cite>Speaker at the Nextcloud Summit 2026<\/span><\/div> <\/blockquote>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t
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2. Your work sits at the intersection of law and technology. Those two fields often operate very differently. Especially in areas like cybersecurity and AI, that gap can be challenging. How do you bring them together?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Law and technology may operate on different timescales and speak different languages, but they are ultimately both systems for governing behavior and managing risk, which makes their intersection unavoidable rather than optional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In cybersecurity and AI, the connection becomes particularly visible when we ask who bears responsibility when systems fail, who sets the standards by which \u00absecure\u00bb or \u00abtrustworthy\u00bb is defined, and who has the authority to enforce those standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology creates facts on the ground. Law defines what those facts mean and what consequences follow. The challenge is not that the two fields are incompatible. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Technology creates facts on the ground. Law defines what those facts mean.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Prof. Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker<\/h6><\/cite>Speaker at the Nextcloud Summit 2026<\/span><\/div> <\/blockquote>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t
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It is that law has traditionally been reactive, codifying norms after society has already absorbed the impact of a technology, whereas effective cybersecurity and AI governance demands a more anticipatory approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridging the two requires legal scholars who are technically literate enough to understand what they are regulating, and technologists who appreciate that design choices are never value-neutral but are always already embedded in a normative framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. And how do you see the role of the government in leveling the playing field for the digital market in Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has several distinct levers here, and the key is using all of them coherently rather than in isolation. Competition law must be enforced with genuine ambition; breaking up or constraining the market power of digital monopolies is a precondition for any meaningful level playing field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, targeted support for European start-ups and scale-ups is essential, because a healthy competitive ecosystem cannot emerge if promising companies are either acquired by incumbents before they mature or simply leave for more favorable jurisdictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps most underappreciated, however, is the role of public procurement: governments are among the largest buyers of digital products and services in Europe, and systematically making alternative, sovereign solutions accessible through procurement frameworks would both create demand and send a clear market signal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These three approaches, competition enforcement, innovation support, and procurement reform, need to work in concert if Europe is to move from a position of digital dependence to one of genuine strategic agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who is the Nextcloud Summit 2026 for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This highly anticipated yearly Nextcloud event is centered around a clear vision: making sure attendees can take back control over their data. You can expect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n