Digital Europe 2030 – The Public Sphere and Digital Sovereignty

In this special Young Professional Seminar, United Europe is cooperation partner of the Alfred Herrhausen Foundation, which has created Foresight-Workshops on “Digital Europe 2030”. In this workshop, three different scenarios will be thougth systematically into the future. With the onset of the digital transformation, the unlimited availability of knowledge and information as well as the possibility of transparency and participation seemed to represent a great opportunity for Europe’s free and open societies.

In the meantime, not only the opportunities but also the risks are clear to see. The polarisation of political debates, deliberately dispersed disinformation and the dependence on algorithms and digital infrastructure that have emerged in systems with different values – the list of challenges we Europeans face in the digital realm is long.

The Digital Europe 2030 project brings these issues together in order to give new impetus to Germany’s European policy, especially in light of the current Council Presidency. In three working sessions, the Alfred Herrhausen Society developed scenarios for the year 2030 together with an interdisciplinary group of experts under the methodological guidance of the company Foresight Intelligence, and derived options for present action from these scenarios. Since the results of this foresight process will be more effective if they are further thought through together with forward-looking young people from all over Europe, the Alfred Herrhausen Foundation has invited United Europe’ Young Professional Advisors to a two-hour online workshop to reflect together on the implications for their working environment.