- Digital autonomy discussions are stagnating; civil society must focus on practical implementation beyond legislation and values.
- Achieving digital sovereignty requires action from government technical staff, procurement departments, and ministries, but these groups are often absent from civil society discussions.
- Civil society can facilitate policy by discussing novel ideas safely, smoothing the path for legislative changes and providing talking points for politicians.
- Moving to digital autonomy involves physical changes like new contracts, vendors, and IT systems, which governments typically resist due to inertia and big-tech alignment.
- Key areas civil society should address include procurement incentives, legal clarity on restricting tenders to European suppliers, and exposing illegal procurement practices.
- Lack of understanding of the hierarchy of digital problems (e.g., cloud dependence, Microsoft dominance) and the need for regime change in government IT must be highlighted.
- Issues like poor user experience, lack of European vendor skills in government tenders, open source user satisfaction, and media biases should be tackled.
- AI implications for sovereignty, mapping EU digital policies to existing initiatives, and leveraging the EU Digital Commons EDIC are also critical topics.