We sold it over the years technological geopolitics was a simple spreadsheet: The United States introduced the rules, Europe regulated with a stern gesture, and China copied the rules. It’s obviously not what you need.
Today, the European partner is unpredictable and sometimes more willing to use extraterritorial power as a platform also for European companies and data, while China has turned into an industrial superpower able to fill the world with batteries, solar panels, electric vehicles and electronics on a scale that Europe cannot match without a serious industrial policy.
In Spain, which usually comes late to strategic debates, he has a rare opportunity: to stop being a spectator and create his own, pragmatic and sinless position. “religious adhesions”within the European brand.
Llamémoslo “neutralidad activa” (sinful naivety). There is no moral equidistance or diplomatic posturing: he proposes a strategy that negotiates with both blocs, minimum critical dependencies and maximum internal capacity. Yes, that means accepting an uncomfortable truth.
If Europe talks about “digital sovereignty” or “open strategic autonomy”, it is not a French whim or a bureaucratic joke: it is a recognition that technological dependence is vulnerable politically, economically and, above all, security. But sovereignty is not decreed: it is built.
The problem is that Europe often confuses sovereignty with regulation
The problem is that Europe often confuses poverty with regulation. We have important regulations like the AI Act, DSA, DMA, NIS2, Data Act etc. that set limits, impose transparency, commit to diligence, counter cyber security and rebalance power. Good.
But normal without industrial muscle is the way to buy healthy food in supermarkets: keep saying “these are my values” if your servants, your chips, your cloud, your models, and your chain of command are in the hands of others.
China, above all, not only tasks: the plan. “Made in China 2025” it was a declaration of industrial intent that the West scoffed at… until it hurt. The result ten years later is a reality that is not debated: manufacturing dominance and economies of scale, especially in sectors key to the energy transition and electrification.
Just look at the battery market: production and price collection are concentrated in abrudata form to Chinaand that is different water filtering throughout the industrial chain. Europe may be outraged, but the market is equally reorganizing.
¿Y Estados Unidos? The transatlantic relationship is not disrupted only with oranges or deplantation: also with the idea, even more normalized, that state-owned companies can be obliged enter data anywhere outside your territory.
Spain does not need a “Spanish cloud” for the flag, but needs a real capacity to deal with critical data (health, justice, education, income, tax, defense)
The debate about sovereignties, about where they are given, based on jurisdiction and with what guarantees, is not paranoia: it depends on the legal stamp. For example Europe insists on “safe, resilient and sustainable” infrastructures. Not because of romanticism, but because legal dependency is also technological dependency.
What can Spain do in this context? First: leave the “usual” group of countries and take over the state agenda. There is an example: Digital Spain 2026, the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the PERTE chip.
The problem isn’t due to bad PDFs: it’s due to poor strategic execution and clear priorities. In truth, we are asking for sovereignty, there are three steps that must be transformed into a political and presuppositional obsession.
The first is infrastructure: cloud, connectivity and computing capacity. Spain does not need a “Spanish cloud” for Bandera, but it needs a real capacity to deal with critical data (health, justice, education, income, taxes, defense) under European governance, with auditable standards and with redundancy.
This means that no exclusive state testers accept our rules: this means that they cannot have a single dependency, and that the public procurement must be designed to avoid being blocked by licenses, proprietary formats and closed “ecosystems”. Overwhelm is filled with good buy.
The second is the industrial chain of strategic technologies: semiconductors, batteries, networks, cyber security and net zero technology. Aquí España has an interesting card: Don’t do it like Germany in the premium cars or like France in the big summer championshipsHowever, it can be positioned as a center for design, photonics, advanced packaging, testing and as an industrial platform for power transfer technologies.
PERTE Chip only will soberanía you create sustainable capabilities, talent and business with the market, not if queda in dispersed subventiones. And the same applies to any product in batteries or renewables: without a value chain strategy (raw materials, finishing, manufacturing, recycling), we will only be where the boards are installed and the components are important.
The third is economic diplomacy without naivety. “Active Neutrality” it means negotiating with Washington from Europe, but with its own agenda: to demand reciprocity, legal guarantees and stability.
And apply the same principle with China: cooperation yes, dependence no. Reversal yes, risk control and safety too. It’s not about demonizing or fading: it’s about not loving yourself.
And above all to understand that real sovereignty is not the right ban, to reduce the cost of changing supplier, architecture or partner when the world changes… because it will.
Spain cannot be considered a non-classical country: it is in the EU, in the single market, in the security alliance and at the regulatory level it is European. But for this very reason it can be useful: a country without imperial obsession and with a need for prosperity, able to develop Europe’s hard version of sovereignty: open, commercial, challenging and capability-based.
If we continue to hope that “Brussels will regulate it” or that “the market will regulate itself”, we will find ourselves in the worst combination: regulated, dependent and regulated. The alternative is more convenient: back, select, prioritize, execute… but also more mature.
Since you ask, Spain doesn’t prefer Silicon Valley or Shenzhen. The issue is that Spain wants to be ahead when Silicon Valley and Shenzhen decide without consulting us what can be done, what can be bought and what the price is.
***Enrique Dans is Professor of Innovation at IE University.
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