Europe between regulation and competitiveness, with Raquel Jorge Ricart
Technology has moved to the center of the sovereignty debate. But sovereignty is not the same as autarky — and Europe needs to learn the difference.
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Caught between China and the United States, Europe has spent years trying to find its place in the global technology landscape. The question is no longer whether it needs to do so, but how. In this episode of the Do Better Podcast, Angel Saz-Carranza, Director of EsadeGeo, speaks with Raquel Jorge Ricart, Director of European Affairs and Head of the Brussels Office of the Spanish Association of the Digital Economy, as part of the III edition of the conference series “Geopolitics on the Board of Directors’ Agenda”, led by EsadeGeo and Esade’s Center for Corporate Governance.
Jorge Ricart begins by establishing a distinction that frames the entire discussion: sovereignty does not mean autarky. In technology, value chains are inherently fragmented and global, and attempting to produce everything within European borders would be as unfeasible as it would be counterproductive. What is at stake instead is the ability to secure access to critical components without taking on unacceptable risks. A nuance that may seem semantic, but has far-reaching implications for industrial policy, regulation and business strategy.
The conversation also addresses one of the most common criticisms of Europe: that it regulates while others innovate. The issue is not regulation itself — which provides legal certainty and protects fundamental rights — but the pace of the process and the administrative burden it creates. When it takes more than a year and a half to develop an AI regulation, companies are left in a strategic limbo: unsure whether to invest now or wait for clarity on the rules of the game.
The discussion extends beyond boardrooms and regulatory frameworks to a broader concern: the impact of artificial intelligence on employment — and especially on education. Jorge Ricart highlights a less-discussed phenomenon: the gradual disappearance of junior roles within organizations. She links this to a deeper, unresolved question: how to prepare the generations currently in classrooms for a labor market that AI is already reshaping.