The European Commission unveils a new digital strategy to reduce dependency on American technology. The plan contains beautiful promises on paper, but few concrete ones.
The European Union finds itself in a bitter technological position today. The dependence on foreign technology, primarily American, is causing political concerns. “Europe urgently needs to think about the strategic dependence on a few technological players”, we recently heard Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) say during Cybersec.
This concern is now being translated into (the beginnings of) action by the European Commission. It presents a new International Digital Strategy to stimulate ‘global cooperation on digital technology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence’. In the 15-page document, the Commission excels at what politicians do best: saying little with many words.
Digital Friends
The plan sets out three goals, as listed in the press announcement:
- Increase the EU’s competitiveness in technology through economic cooperation and collaboration between companies.
- Promote a high level of security for the EU and its partners.
- Shape global digital governance and standards together with a network of partners.
International cooperation is constantly emphasized. In geopolitically uncertain times, the EU wants to know who its digital friends are and who could become them. For a long time, that was the United States, but the relationship has soured since Trump entered the Oval Office. The fact that large American technology companies dominate the European IT industry doesn’t sound interesting in the long term, even though hyperscalers try to appease with sovereign cloud services.
The European Commission is opening its digital ecosystem to “like-minded” partners, says European Commissioner Henna Virkkunen. That could be the US, but not necessarily. Digital friendships are also being sought with countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Canada. China is not mentioned as a potential partner.
To let these digital friendships flourish, the EU seems willing to make concessions on the other two pillars: security and governance. The European Union is known for its strict regulations, which sometimes causes friction with other countries, the US in particular. There are voices within the European institutions to revise the GDPR law and to restrict encryption.
Many Plans, few Actions, and Little Money
There is certainly no shortage of initiatives to make Europe stand stronger on its digital feet. In April, an AI plan was announced, and quantum technology and 6G are also high on the agenda, alongside ongoing initiatives such as the Chips Act. The same issue often pinches again: many words, but few actions and too little money to make a difference. The European Commission itself doubts whether the region can decouple from American technology.
Dutch software developer and entrepreneur Bert Hubert comes to similar conclusions for The Register. “This plan indicates that they currently have nothing substantive to say. That’s sad because at this moment something concrete would be very welcome. Publishing nothing would have been better than this”.