All spring, EU countries and markets have been waiting for the European Commission’s promised large technology package. The idea is to strengthen Europe’s digital independence at a time when the digital side is deeply dependent on the United States.
Just a few years ago, this was not seen as a problem – but since President Trump has regularly threatened to take over Greenland, leave NATO or impose huge tariffs on EU goods, more and more people have started to feel uncomfortable with such total reliance on American companies and US-produced online services.
We live in a world where these types of very strong dependencies . . . can be used as a weapon against us. That’s why it’s so important to look at our vital sectors and the dependencies we have.
EU Commissioner for Digital Henna Virkkunen said this after a meeting in Lille, France, this spring, according to the AFP news agency.
Test the clouds
Not least, there is concern about cloud services – everything from data storage to programs that run on external servers. According to The Financial Times, Europe currently relies on more than 70 percent of cloud services from three of the biggest US companies: Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
The Commission’s technology package is now expected to include a call for member states to “stress test” their authorities’ cloud use to identify any problems, with a view to potentially switching to more secure alternatives. Cloud use will also be graded into four levels, to identify the areas that require the highest possible security.
The European Commission also wants more people to use technology and programs based on open source software, to avoid unnecessary dependencies, reports Politico Europe.
The technology package is also expected to include investments in joint purchases of computer chips and promises to release more money for the development of AI, European cloud services and data capacity.
Concerns about the US
The nervousness about how the US will react is both clear and considerable. The technology package has been postponed time and again during the spring, which critics have mainly interpreted as concerns and internal squabbles about how far to go in clashing with Trump and the American internet giants.
US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder has already warned the EU against coming up with overly protectionist plans.
“Should we make Europe more competitive or others less competitive? One is a good plan, the other is a bad plan,” he said in an AFP interview in April.
