The European Health Data Space and the Geopolitics of EU Sovereignty
Introduction The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is geopolitically important because it translates the European Union’s abstract ambition for “digital sovereignty” into a concrete institutional, legal, and technical system for one of the most sensitive categories of data: health data. Regulation (EU) 2025/327 formally establishes the EHDS as an EU-wide framework for the primary and secondary use of electronic health data; it entered into force on 26 March 2025, applies from 26 March 2027, and will be implemented in phases through 2029, 2031, and 2035 (Regulation (EU) 2025/327, 2025). ( EUR-Lex ) Its importance lies not only in improving healthcare delivery or research efficiency, but in determining whether the EU is capable to govern, standardise, secure, and exploit strategic data infrastructures according to its own constitutional values rather than by defaulting to foreign platforms, fragmented national systems, or private-sector gatekeepers. In this essay I want to argue that the...