Data Sovereignty and Industrial Data Spaces

Europe’s strategic autonomy in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, health resilience, mobility systems, energy management and public services cannot be built on compute, cloud capacity and regulation alone. It depends on access to reliable, interoperable, legally usable and commercially trusted data.

The central problem is that European data are abundant but fragmented across firms, public authorities, hospitals, infrastructure operators, industrial supply chains and national systems. Data sovereignty therefore cannot be reduced to data localisation.

This analysis answers: What is the strategic meaning of data sovereignty for Europe beyond mere data localisation? How does the legal architecture and operative framework govern access to reliable, interoperable, legally usable and commercially trusted data? How do industrial data spaces differ across sectors such as industry, health, mobility, energy and public services? What is the DFM strategic assessment of Europe's abundant but fragmented data?