What does European digital sovereignty actually mean for pandemic response capability, and what must change before the next crisis?
Date: Wednesday, 24th June 2026
Time: 9:00 – 10:30
Session overview
Context:
DPH2026 takes place six years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Far enough to assess what has genuinely changed, and close enough that the urgency of “next time” remains real.
Lack of data for public health, their interpretability and access needs to be thought about and well planned when designing healthcare systems and data collection processes, to ensure equity, representativeness and quality are embedded. The systems must include data on hard to reach populations as as well as from those who out out form public healthca
The central argument of this session is that European sovereignty is not an ideological position but a public health necessity: a country or region that is dependent on external actors for diagnostics capacity, epidemic intelligence, or AI infrastructure is structurally more vulnerable in any rapid emergency response. Building on the responsible AI innovation debate from DPH2025 and on recent European legislative developments (EU AI Act, European Health Data Space), this session asks what sovereignty concretely requires, and what the current preparedness gap looks like.
Speakers
CEO Transmissible
Secretary for Public Health, Catalan Health Department, Government of Catalonia
Royal College of Surgeons Ireland
Public Health Intelligence Officer, WHO Regional Office for Europe