Europe looks beyond regulation in bid for tech leadership

REDUCING DIGITAL DEPENDENCE

Europe remains heavily reliant on foreign technology.

According to the European Commission, the EU relies on countries outside the bloc for more than 80 per cent of its key digital products, services, infrastructure and intellectual property.

Recent tensions with Washington over digital regulation and economic security, and with Beijing over export controls and critical raw materials, have reinforced these concerns.

The European Commission last month adopted a Tech Sovereignty Package, a series of measures aimed at strengthening Europe’s digital capabilities.

The plans include expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure, increasing cloud computing capacity, boosting semiconductor production and diversifying digital supply chains.

For some European lawmakers, the issue is no longer just economic but strategic.

“IT solutions can be used as a tool, if not a weapon … to show your power, your superiority and that you can do much more than the others,” said Michał Kobosko, a Member of the European Parliament from the Renew Europe group.

Experts say tech sovereignty is not about isolating Europe from the rest of the world.

“The future for the EU is going to be finding other partners, which is why the package defines tech sovereignty not as isolation and protectionism but as openness to others who share similar standards,” said Sabine Muscat, a senior digital policy fellow at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a European policy think-tank.