Mikołaj Barczentewicz on EU Digital Sovereignty and Canada’s Options

ICLE Senior Scholar Mikołaj Barczentewicz joined Michael Geist’s Law Bytes podcast to discuss the European Union’s proposed Cloud and AI Development Act and its implications for Canada’s pursuit of closer digital ties with Europe. He argued that ownership and localization requirements offer an unreliable foundation for digital sovereignty, potentially excluding even European providers while restricting access to leading technologies, and highlighted customer-held encryption keys and zero-retention systems as practical safeguards. Barczentewicz also questioned the value of the proposal’s narrow “associated country” status, urging Canada to pursue a digital trade agreement with meaningful protections for cross-border data flows and nondiscrimination. Audio of the full episode is embedded below.