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The European Strategy on Data - Analysing GAIA-X’s influence strategy in light of the EU Commission’s digital strategy from a Multi-level Governance perspective

Funk, Marvin LU (2021) STVM24 20211
Department of Political Science
Abstract
In order to stay globally competitive, the European Union is in the process of transforming into a data economy. Therefore, the European Commission has published its Strategy on Data in order to address this macro development. Further, the private sector directly affected by policies has its own strategy to address this issue. One particular initiative, GAIA-X, envisions a European federation of cloud infrastructure. In order to push this initiative, the non-profit GAIA-X AISBL is in direct contact with national and European actors. Both the private and public actors emphasise the importance of a European data infrastructure built on the core European values of transparency, safety, and efficacy, which is competitive on the global market. ... (More)
In order to stay globally competitive, the European Union is in the process of transforming into a data economy. Therefore, the European Commission has published its Strategy on Data in order to address this macro development. Further, the private sector directly affected by policies has its own strategy to address this issue. One particular initiative, GAIA-X, envisions a European federation of cloud infrastructure. In order to push this initiative, the non-profit GAIA-X AISBL is in direct contact with national and European actors. Both the private and public actors emphasise the importance of a European data infrastructure built on the core European values of transparency, safety, and efficacy, which is competitive on the global market.
The thesis at hand conceptualizes the GAIA-X association as an interest group and analyses the associations’ strategy from a Multi-level governance perspective on organised interests. In a first step, this thesis will map the literature on interest groups in the Multi-level Governance approach. In a second step, the influence process will be analysed from the mapped theoretical framework. The method used is a Case-Process Tracing analyse with the European Strategy on Data being the dependent variable and the influence of the private sector the independent variable. The analysed materials are published documents by the association and the Commission.
The analysis shows that GAIA-X is pursuing a dual strategy in addressing national and European access points, which aligns with the assumptions of the theoretical framework. The strategy is characterised as an insider strategy due to the organised interest’s means and network. Due to the information-dependent policy area, the Commission seems dependent on expertise from the private sector, which makes an influence of the private sector on the Commission’s strategy probable. (Less)
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author
Funk, Marvin LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM24 20211
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
digital strategy, GAIA-X, interest groups, Multi-level Governance, EU Commission
language
English
id
9045107
date added to LUP
2021-07-06 11:06:29
date last changed
2021-07-06 11:06:29
@misc{9045107,
  abstract     = {{In order to stay globally competitive, the European Union is in the process of transforming into a data economy. Therefore, the European Commission has published its Strategy on Data in order to address this macro development. Further, the private sector directly affected by policies has its own strategy to address this issue. One particular initiative, GAIA-X, envisions a European federation of cloud infrastructure. In order to push this initiative, the non-profit GAIA-X AISBL is in direct contact with national and European actors. Both the private and public actors emphasise the importance of a European data infrastructure built on the core European values of transparency, safety, and efficacy, which is competitive on the global market. 
The thesis at hand conceptualizes the GAIA-X association as an interest group and analyses the associations’ strategy from a Multi-level governance perspective on organised interests. In a first step, this thesis will map the literature on interest groups in the Multi-level Governance approach. In a second step, the influence process will be analysed from the mapped theoretical framework. The method used is a Case-Process Tracing analyse with the European Strategy on Data being the dependent variable and the influence of the private sector the independent variable. The analysed materials are published documents by the association and the Commission. 
The analysis shows that GAIA-X is pursuing a dual strategy in addressing national and European access points, which aligns with the assumptions of the theoretical framework. The strategy is characterised as an insider strategy due to the organised interest’s means and network. Due to the information-dependent policy area, the Commission seems dependent on expertise from the private sector, which makes an influence of the private sector on the Commission’s strategy probable.}},
  author       = {{Funk, Marvin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The European Strategy on Data - Analysing GAIA-X’s influence strategy in light of the EU Commission’s digital strategy from a Multi-level Governance perspective}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}