REPORT FROM THE SPEECH "DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY OF POLAND AND EUROPE – A RECENTLY DISCOVERED TREASURE AT THE END OF THE END OF HISTORY" – KOSZALIN STUDENT CULTURE CENTER "KREŚLARNIA" – OCTOBER 2, 2025

On Thursday, October 2, 2025, the "Kreślarnia" Sports Club in Koszalin took place 39th SPARKCAMP Koszalin meetingAmong the speakers was Piotr Flis, who delivered a lecture on "Digital Sovereignty of Poland and Europe – a Recently Discovered Treasure at the End of the End of History." The thesis of the presentation was powerful: without the state's own capabilities, investments, and human resources in IT, as well as without diversification and resilience, it is difficult to speak of real sovereignty in the era of cloud and AI. The speaker emphasized that data sovereignty – control over storage and use – is today a prerequisite for security and an efficient state.

Against the backdrop of a "naive" vision of the end of history, Piotr Flis exposed the realities of technological geopolitics: from the legacy of Bretton Woods, the threat of the "Thucydides Trap" (US-China tensions), to the race for semiconductor production. He pointed to, among other things, Asia's growing ambitions and the strategic importance of the supply chain for modern chips, a prerequisite for AI development.

In the section on regulations and sanctions, he discussed US instruments (NDAA, BIS actions) and their impact on the market, using Huawei Ascend chips competing with top-of-the-line NVIDIA accelerators as an example. This illustrates how policy shapes technology availability and the pace of innovation.

He also devoted a significant section to the influence of Big Tech: lobbying mechanisms, the scale of spending, and the consequences for public policies in Europe and Poland. The conclusion? We need transparency, standards, and strengthening of domestic science and R&D to avoid becoming a "digital colony."

A worrying limitation to the development of Polish data centers and AI is the limited availability of electricity, as Poland is on the verge of an "energy cliff." Unfortunately, decades of sluggish investment in the energy sector cannot be compensated for. It's worth noting that the construction of a Polish nuclear power plant has been planned since 1971. More on this topic in the article on our technology blog -> Seneca's Cliff, the Limits of Development, Polish AI and Polish Digital Sovereignty.

The whole was concluded with a list of practical recommendations: building competences and research and development facilities, conscious diversification of suppliers, enforcement of privacy and systemic risk analysis as an obligation of decision-makers.

The presentation's punchline was bittersweet – everything is (almost) in our hands, and there are examples of excellent Polish high-tech companies, but, to quote Mikhail Bulgakov, perhaps "Anushka has already bought the sunflower oil (...) she's even spilled it. So the meeting will not take place."

Meeting organizer, SPARKCAMP Association provided live coverage of all presentations and recording, which can be viewed on the SPARKCAMP Facebook page.

The file with Piotr Flis's presentation is available for download here -> DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY OF POLAND AND EUROPE – A RECENTLY DISCOVERED TREASURE AT THE END OF THE END OF HISTORY.