Evolving Beyond the Brussels Effect: EU Digital Diplomacy and the Broadening of External Digital Strategy

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has long exercised global influence through the Brussels Effect, whereby EU rules become de facto international standards because firms align with them to maintain access to the Union's large single market. In the digital domain, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) remains the clearest example of this regulatory dynamic. However, the Brussels Effect alone no longer fully captures the EU's contemporary external digital strategy. Since 2022, the emergence of EU Digital Diplomacy has signalled a broader external agenda that links digital governance not only to regulatory projection but also to cooperation, resilience, strategic partnerships and geopolitical concerns. This paper examines two developments in this evolution: first, the growing role of structured cooperation and partnerships alongside market-driven regulatory influence; and second, the increasing centrality of geopolitical and economic-security considerations in the EU's external digital agenda. The paper argues that Digital Diplomacy should be understood as an emerging strategic reorientation in which unilateral regulation is increasingly supplemented by partnerships, infrastructure initiatives, capacity-building and security-oriented cooperation. In this sense, the EU's external digital strategy is best understood as a broader and more adaptive response to a more contested global digital environment.