The European Union (EU) is ready to admit that attempts to eliminate the dominance of American technology companies are unrealistic due to the difficulty of overcoming their long-standing superiority in this area. This was reported by the newspaper Politico, referring to a draft of the relevant document from the European Commission that it reviewed before publication.
In the context of escalating trade tensions and growing hybrid threats, the EU, as the publication reports, will soon publish an International Digital Strategy for Europe. “Technological competitiveness is an economic and security imperative for all who seek prosperity and stability“, the document says.
According to Politico “the draft strategy signals that the EU has few fresh ideas for re-establishing Europe as a serious player in global technology, even as responding to the new transatlantic reality becomes a top priority in Brussels.“
Donald Trump's return to the White House and his “belligerent stance“ The EU's trade war with Europe has revived concerns about sovereignty over fundamental technologies, including social media and cloud services, and about potential access by US law enforcement agencies to data processed by giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google, the paper said.
However, when it comes to dominant players such as US companies, “bridging the gap is unrealistic and cooperation will remain important throughout the technology chain“, the paper's authors note. It mentions China, as well as Japan, South Korea and India, as countries “with which cooperation will also be important“.