By binding cloud services, AI and chips to Europe’s security and economic independence, the EU’s new tech sovereignty plan edges the bloc closer to a power struggle with Washington and Beijing.
In the tech sector, Europeans no longer want to be naïve. They are increasingly willing to restrict access for American tech giants in certain strategic areas. Why should Americans worry about the new EU tech sovereignty package?
Some MEPs doubted the EU Commission had enough manpower to take on the giant legal teams of Big Tech companies – which have been pushing back strongly against the EU’s flagship Digital Markets Act.
“Citizens can make personal choices – I decided on the Fairphone, with a Murena operating system, which is de-Googled,” said Belgian AI expert.
A one-word answer to why EU lost control of Big Tech: Ireland“Ireland cannot fix this itself. This cannot come from inside … [it] needs pressure from the other capitals and from the [EU]Commission,” Irish data-rights activist warns.
On 1 July this year, Ireland takes the rotating EU presidency and agenda powers on the crown jewels of EU tech laws: “That should make you worried,” says activist Johnny Ryan.
A citizen lodged a claim for privacy breach. What they didn’t expect was an encouragement to settle with the most controversial user of personal data in Big Tech.
Next time you hear an EU commissioner say the AI Act needs to be ‘simplified’, the honest translation is: a company asked them to do that, and they said yes.
A victory for publishers over Big Tech (if only it had happened five years ago)In a victory for publishers and a reality check for Silicon Valley, a recent ruling by the European Court of Justice has confirmed that publishers can request Big Tech companies to pay “fair compensation” for using snippets of their news articles.
From Hungary to France, financial strains, political influence, and growing restrictions on press freedom are ever worse in Europe, the general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutiérrez, tells EUobserver in an interview.
In one Ukrainian model, the drone flies to the front line and when its pilot gives the order, it locks onto the target, pursues it, and destroys it, even if Russian jamming cuts off contact.
Two years after adopting its AI Act, the EU is already preparing to simplify it. Does this mean Europeans are scaling back their regulatory ambitions on AI?
US card networks earn billions from our transactions. Europe is trying to change that.
The European Investment Fund says a past investment, which indirectly ended up at Israeli Paragon Solutions, met all eligibility criteria.
This is the first time Europe’s Digital Markets Act will be used to regulate cloud computing and so this is unchartered territory.
The EU’s leadership is now on a precipice. Our push for digital sovereignty was driven by concern that the US Cloud Act might give the US administration access to US-owned data centres in Europe. Yet, now the EU Commission is considering a deal with the US authorities to share the personal data of European citizens in exchange for the continuation of visa-waiver scheme.
Instead of funding European commercial alternatives to American chokepoints, Europe should fund the layer underneath them: infrastructure that is useful because it cannot easily be owned.
Cookies have been around since the early days of the internet. The “Accept All” button has become a routine reflex for many. But even the “Reject All” button disguises hundreds of so-called “legitimate interest” tracking.
Now the EU wants to fix this loophole in its landmark privacy rules, claiming users would save 198 million hours a year with new changes – but will these really empower users or reshape old problems into a new form?
The Kremlin’s ‘digital Iron Curtain’ signals weakness and fearDemonising the internet can easily be read as a sign of desperation and insecurity: open spaces such as those online make it more difficult for Vladimir Putin to fully-control information flows, and alternative narratives.