The European Union finalizes an ambitious plan to reduce its technological dependence on USA. Next Wednesday, June 3, the European Commission will present its long-awaited strategy technological sovereigntya broad initiative that aims to “regain its place in the global race for geoeconomic power,” according to a draft accessed by the Financial Times.
The new legislative offensive of Brussels will go beyond regulating the technology giants of Silicon Valley to offer an alternative route that will involve promoting European companies in sectors as strategic as chips o semiconductorsthe cloud computing o to artificial intelligence.
The turn of the UE has been spurred by growing fears that the US president Donald Trump can instrumentalize the economic dependence that European capitals have on their technology to achieve their political objectives. The answer is a plan to create “strategic checks and balances that enhance the ability of Europa to remain open to the world without compromising its interests and values.
Cloud and AI development
The European package has two legs. The first is the Cloud and AI Development Lawwhich will adopt incentives that favor the construction of data centers Europeans with the mission of the EU tripling its capacity in the next five to seven years. To achieve this, we are committed to regulatory simplification, as well as harmonization at European level. This is the result of an initiative promoted in 2020, at the end of the first Trump administration.
This law will also encourage the development of cutting-edge technologies called to shape the future such as IA o to cloud. Currently, more than 70% of the market cloud computing —the spinal column that supports internet— in the EU it is in the hands of three American giants: Amazon, Microsoft y Google. Brussels’ shift will benefit European cloud technology players like the French company Scalewaythe switzerland Exoscale or the German Stackit already European AI alternatives like the French one Mistral AI or the German Aleph Alpha.
To do this, the Commission will establish four criteria so that EU countries can carry out “sovereignty risk assessments” when choosing their suppliers. According to the Financial Timesthose classifications “will be linked to criteria including who controls the service, the supply chain, data processing for AI models, and the location of the infrastructure and the cybersecurity“.
European chips
The second leg of the European strategy is as or more important than the previous one. This is the Chips Act 2, the second version of its law on chips with which the EU wants to reinforce the national manufacturing of semiconductorsvital for the operation of all electronic products. By watering a sovereign ecosystem, Brussels could also benefit entities such as the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) who have been working, for years, on the design of open source chips to reduce external dependence on that technology.
The draft accessed by the Financial Times is still subject to change before publication next Wednesday. The Commission was due to present its strategy on March 25, but has postponed it on up to three occasions. For its part, the White House has bluntly warned Brussels that the adoption of “protectionist” rules could derail the trade agreement between the EU and the US.
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