Op-ed on 'Ukraine built a digital state under fire – what’s the EU waiting for?'

Ukraine has rapidly built a resilient digital state infrastructure—even under active Russian attacks—making public services and governance more agile, transparent, and secure. The article argues that this “digital sovereignty” was constructed not through lofty policy declarations but through real wartime necessity and technological innovation. It questions why the EU hasn’t more forcefully supported or learned from Ukraine’s experience, urging greater strategic cooperation and digital backing.

Together with Ludmyla Rabchynska (former Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine) and Oles Andriychuk (Professor, University of Exeter), I wrote an op-ed for Euractiv in which we assessed how the Ukrainian state has transformed itself digitally over the past years.

This stands in stark contrast to the European Union, where a sense of urgency is still missing. During the European Commission’s High-Level Conference on Competitiveness, Mario Draghi criticized the ongoing gap between words and action. According to the European Policy Innovation Council, only 11% of his 383 recommendations have been implemented.

So what does the Ukrainian example show us? Digital sovereignty cannot be secured through declarations or regulations alone; it must be built under real conditions, with public trust at its core. If Ukraine can digitize government in the fog of war, the EU can surely do so in the calm of peace. In the end, the question is not capability, but political will.

Read the full article here.