Rede bei „Story Vision Europe“: Input Here We Go: The Path to Digital Sovereignty

Die Rede von Sven Lehmann, Vorsitzender des Ausschusses für Kultur & Medien und MdB für Köln, anlässlich der Veranstaltung „Story Vision Europe“ :

 

The topics we are discussing today are crucial for the future of Europe:

How do we ensure the visibility of European content?

How do we strengthen our audiovisual value creation?

And how do we hold our own in a digital world dominated by a handful of global corporations?

 

From my point of viel, one thing is clear:

The issue of Germany’s and Europe’s digital sovereignty is, alongside the armed conflicts of our time, one of the central geopolitical challenges of the 21st century.

This is about far more than technology.

It is about critical infrastructure.

It is about economic competitiveness.

It is about cultural assets and intellectual property.

And ultimately, it is about the very foundations of our democracy.

 

The current situation is sobering. More than 80 percent of digital products, services, and infrastructure in Europe have their origin outside of Europe. Year after year, hundreds of billions of euros flow to the U.S. for digital services.

At the same time, we are witnessing an increasing concentration of economic, technological, and social power.

Platforms shape public debates. Digital corporations control advertising markets. AI systems are trained using our data and our cultural works. Streaming platforms wield enormous bargaining power over European producers.

 

In short: Europe uses digital technologies every day, but others make the rules.

All of this entails a major and complex political mandate for action.

But please do not expect me to present the solution to all these issues in ten minutes.

I’d rather like to share with you some thoughts and ideas that I think are important especially for our work in the Committee on Culture and Media in the Bundestag.

 

My first thought is:

Artificial intelligence is here to stay. And that is not automatically good or bad.

The thing is how we shape the rules.

AI opens up enormous opportunities. It can support creative processes. It can facilitate access to culture and education. It can make production processes more efficient and enable new forms of artistic expression.

What matters is what rules we set for it and whether we succeed in combining innovation with fairness, transparency, and the protection of creative work.

So the question is not whether we want AI.

The question is: How do we shape AI so that it serves people and not the other way around?

 

My second thought is:

Digitalization does not stop at national borders. European action is essential.

No single European nation-state will have the power on its own to effectively regulate global platforms or AI corporations and to counter the market power of the United States.

That is why it is right that Europe has already taken important steps with the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act.

The AI Act establishes, for the first time, binding rules for transparency, security, and accountability in the use of AI. Now it is crucial to consistently implement these rules and transpose them into national laws.

At the same time, we are currently witnessing a new debate on digital independence. Just last week, the European Commission presented the so-called Cloud and AI Development Act.

The goal is to reduce Europe’s dependence on American cloud and AI providers and to build our own European infrastructure. This is a huge step.

Because digital sovereignty does not arise through regulation only. It also arises through investment, innovative strength, and our own technological capabilities.

Europe must act with confidence and strengthen its capacity to act.

 

And that brings me to my third point:

Those who dominate digital markets must also take on responsibility.

The major platform and technology companies generate enormous profits in Europe. At the same time, they benefit from our data, our infrastructure, and, not least, from the cultural contributions of our creative professionals.

That is why we need these companies to contribute fairly to the financing of the public good.

I therefore advocate for a digital levy on large technology companies.

The revenue could help strengthen local journalism, media diversity, and the cultural and creative industries.

After all, those who generate value from European content should also contribute to financing the cultural infrastructure on which this value creation is based in the first place.

For the same reason, the investment obligation for streaming providers is so important. Those who do business successfully on the European market must also invest in European productions. This strengthens our producers and all jobs in the film industry. And it enriches Europe’s cultural diversity.

 

My fourth—and perhaps most important—point is:

No AI without art.

And this gets to the heart of a fundamental problem.

The digital transformation, and artificial intelligence in particular, are fundamentally changing the conditions of cultural creation.

Already today, around 35 percent of cultural workers’ incomes come from digital products and services.

At the same time, 79 percent of artists fear that AI threatens their existence.

This must be a warning to us.

We are currently witnessing large technology corporations training their AI models with vast amounts of cultural and creative content, often without the knowledge, consent, or financial compensation of the creators.

This imbalance is unacceptable.

Those who profit from cultural work must respect the rights of creators.

That is why we need more transparency regarding which works are used to train AI systems.

That is why we need mandatory labeling of AI-generated content.

That is why we need effective licensing models between AI companies and rights holders.

And that is why we must critically examine the existing opt-out provision. Almost all creators have stated that their works should not be used for AI training, and yet their content still ends up in training datasets.

We must not forget one thing: without the works of authors, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, or artists, the outputs of modern AI systems would not have the quality they do today.

As I said before: No art, no AI.

That is why the cultural value chain must be protected in the digital age as well.

 

Digital sovereignty is not about isolating Europe.

It is about preserving our democratic capacity to act.

It is about combining innovation with freedom.

It is about protecting cultural diversity.

And it is about ensuring that the digital future is not determined by a few global corporations, but by the democratic societies in which we live.

If Europe wants to remain technologically strong, culturally diverse, and democratically resilient, then we must act now.

Together and as a European community.

Thank you very much.