This Monday, January 26, 2026, at Ministry of Economy and Financestood first Digital sovereignty meetingsa new space for debate designed as a point of convergence between public authorities, large companies, institutions and digital players. Organized by the delegated ministry responsible for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology, the event takes place in a context marked by the worsening of technological dependencies, the rise in geopolitical tensions around digital infrastructures and the intensification of cyber risks.
The meeting was opened by Anne Le Hénanffwhich established the political framework for the initiative: making digital sovereignty and resilience operational issues, directly involving the industrial, technological and economic choices of France and Europe.
It is in this context that the intervention Michael Paulina recognized figure in tech and telecoms (ex France Telecom, SFR, OVHcloud), with a statement that contrasts with the incantatory speeches often associated with digital sovereignty. Far from slogans, he delivered an industrial and economic reading, articulated around a simple idea: sovereignty cannot be decreed, it is constructed and measured.
A radically pragmatic definition of sovereignty
He recalled that sovereignty is judged neither by intention nor by speech, but by a central criterion: the capacity to grow and gain market share. A sector is only sovereign if it sells, develops and imposes itself against global competitors. Conversely, a sector that stagnates remains dependent, regardless of the stories surrounding it. Without a competitive offer, there is no sovereignty possible. And without growth, supply remains vulnerable, redeemable or marginalizable.
The false debate of the absence of supply
Michel Paulin also called for deconstructing a widely spread narrative according to which there is no credible alternative to major non-European players. This narrative, often used to justify certain purchasing choices, in reality maintains de facto monopoly situations.
The observation he defends is the opposite: the offer exists. A repository of solutions must also be made public in order to make visible an offer supported by thousands of French and European companies investing massively in R&D. Many export successfully, some even growing faster internationally than in their own market. The problem is therefore not the offer, but the way in which it is perceived, evaluated and selected by the state and large groups.
Order as a central lever of sovereignty
In this context, Michel Paulin clearly designates the key players: the buyers. The State, through public procurement, and large groups, through their purchasing volumes, structure the market. Each technological arbitrage constitutes a signal addressed to the ecosystem, investors and international partners.
Digital sovereignty cannot progress through regulation alone. The exemplary nature of the principals constitutes a determining lever.
Refuse autarky, take responsibility for arbitration
Michel Paulin reminds us that sovereignty does not consist of producing everything locally, but of controlling its dependencies, of understanding the legal, economic and geopolitical risks, and of avoiding situations of irreversible lock-in. No country, including the United States, has complete control over its technology stack. It is not a question of closing the markets, but of rebalancing a balance of power that has become asymmetrical.
The European node: financing the move to scale
Where his remarks become more political is on the question of financing. Europe knows how to create technological startups, but is still struggling to finance their scaling up beyond the hundred million euro mark. In critical sectors like quantum, AI or the cloud, the gap with the United States is now structural.
The subject is sensitive: it concerns the role of pension funds, the fragmentation of European capital markets and the absence of long-term capital capable of supporting extended industrial cycles. Without this capital, European companies finance themselves elsewhere, sell themselves or relocate, mechanically weakening any ambition for sovereignty.
Bundling as a realistic trajectory
Faced with this fragmentation, Michel Paulin outlines a pragmatic path, that of the grouped offer. It is not a question of artificially creating a single champion, but of making clear a coalition of European players capable, together, of covering critical segments of the digital stack.
An economic equation more than a political speech
At the heart of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, he recalled, in terms to which public decision-makers are attentive, that a few arrow control points are enough to produce systemic effects: acceleration of the growth of the sector, creation of qualified jobs, strengthening of the national tax base and reduction of value flows towards foreign jurisdictions.
Sovereignty must be seen as a rational investment, creating economic and industrial value.
A sovereignty anchored in reality
Michel Paulin’s intervention had the merit of moving the debate away from postures and sovereignty washingrecalling three inseparable levers: growth in supply, responsibility for ordering and availability of capital. A speech which will have been particularly noted for this first edition of the Digital sovereignty meetings.
