Brussels frames the digital euro, age verification, and Chat Control as separate solutions to real issues, but together they highlight who controls the digital infrastructure shaping everyday life in Europe.
Sovereignty in the 21st century is no longer measured solely by territory, military capability, or political institutions. It increasingly depends on who controls the infrastructure that enables economies to function.
Europe is beginning to recognise that sovereignty is not merely a legal or political concept, as it also rests on the capacity to produce, innovate, and sustain economic power.
Íris Erlingsdóttir | Gústaf Adolf Skúlason
June 9, 2026
The government’s insistence that this referendum is “just about talks” echoes criticisms of how EU integration has proceeded elsewhere: incremental steps that are difficult to reverse.
Romanians are not rejecting Europe. They are rejecting a politics that hides behind Europe—one in which outcomes are perceived as shaped in Brussels rather than decided at home.
