Critical views on the phenomenon of EU digital sovereignty through the prism of global data governance reality: main obstacles and challenges

Summary This article is devoted to determining the role and place of the EU in the international information space, as well as identifying problematic aspects and existing challenges that the EU faces in implementing its digital strategy in the field of data governance and protection. In the context of the growing influence of such key political figures as, for example, the USA and China, which have dominant influence on the digital economy, the issue of proper ensuring the digital sovereignty of the EU in the field of global data governance comes to the fore. This is due to the fact that it is the digital sovereignty that should guarantee the strategic autonomy of the EU in the digital world in the context of the EU’s increasing dependence on foreign technologies and services and a shortage of investments in the digital sector. In this research, the authors focus on the need to develop and use a model of multilateral participation in the field of data governance and protection in the digital world, which, in turn, implies prevention of weakening the role of the state in regulating the digital market, since it is the states (including the EU) that are the primary guarantors of human rights protection in the digital world.