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Subsequently, the idea of strategic autonomy has evolved into the concept
of strategic sovereignty as a result of an obvious need to broaden its scope
beyond the context of security and defence, and to discuss European autonomy
in a number of other areas as well, from economy to energy and digital
technology, and from public health to foreign policy. Nevertheless, this new
formula seems to give the same hard time to politicians, practitioners, and
academics. While some of them claim that “strategic sovereignty and strategic
autonomy are different animals” (Fiott 2021a, 2), the arguments presented
to distinguish the two are not always convincing.
In the light of this sometimes confusing - and often unproductive ¬
terminology debate, we may fix three basic views as our platform for this
chapter: first, that as a main rule we use the term ‘strategic sovereignty (when
we go beyond the area of security and defence); second, that in today’s world
the Union is facing a pressing need for the “ability to act autonomously, to rely
on one’s own resources in key strategic areas and to cooperate with partners
whenever needed” (Anghel 2020, 1); and third, that strategic sovereignty
does not equal autarky. Finally, we consider the key questions highlighted
by Fiott as the ones that still need to be answered:
Strategic sovereignty
FROM? Strategic sovereignty FOR?
What are the main What does a political
obstacles impeding
independent political action
and what dependencies are
the political community
seeking freedom from?
community need strategic
sovereignty for and what
are the overarching political
aims?