Social Europe - Europe Is Fighting the Wrong Tech Battle — Here’s What It Should Do Instead
Europe director Max von Thun co-authors a piece to argue that Europe should focus on protecting democratic values and reinforcing competition laws, rather than pursuing deregulation that could further entrench the dominance of global tech giants.
As part of his confrontational stance toward Europe, US President Donald Trump could end up weaponizing critical technologies. The European Union must appreciate the true nature of this threat instead of focusing on competing with the US as an economic ally. To achieve true tech sovereignty, the EU should transcend its narrow focus on competitiveness and deregulation and adopt a far more ambitious strategy.
After passing several landmark tech bills in recent years, the EU is now seeking to boost innovation and enhance competitiveness. Building on former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s influential 2024 report, the European Commission recently published the Competitiveness Compass – its road map for implementing Draghi’s recommendations.
Europe’s growing anxiety about competitiveness is fueled by its inability to challenge US-based tech giants where it counts: in the market. As the Draghi report points out, the productivity gap between the United States and the EU largely reflects the relative weakness of Europe’s tech sector. Recent remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Tech Commissioner Henna Virkkunen suggest that policymakers have taken Draghi’s message to heart, making competitiveness the central focus of EU tech policy.
But this singular focus is both insufficient and potentially counterproductive at a time of technological and geopolitical upheaval. While pursuing competitiveness could reduce Big Tech’s influence over Europe’s economy and democratic institutions, it could just as easily entrench it. European leaders’ current fixation on deregulation – turbocharged by the Draghi report – leaves EU policymaking increasingly vulnerable to lobbying by powerful corporate interests and risks legitimizing policies that are incompatible with fundamental European values.
As a result, the European Commission’s deregulatory measures – including its recent decision to shelve draft AI and privacy rules, and its forthcoming “simplification” of tech legislation including the GDPR – are more likely to benefit entrenched tech giants than they are to support startups and small and medium-size enterprises. Meanwhile, Europe’s hasty and uncritical push for “AI competitiveness” risks reinforcing Big Tech’s tightening grip on the AI technology stack.
It should come as no surprise that the Draghi report’s deregulatory agenda was warmly received in Silicon Valley, even by Elon Musk himself. But the ambitions of some tech leaders go far beyond cutting red tape. Musk’s use of X (formerly Twitter) and Starlink to interfere in national elections and the war in Ukraine, together with the Trump administration’s brazen attacks on EU tech regulation, show that Big Tech’s quest for power poses a serious threat to European sovereignty.
Read full article here.