Only a few years ago, resistance from countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark bogged down a French-led push to keep the EU’s most sensitive data off U.S.-based servers. | Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images
Under the proposal, which will now go to national governments and the European Parliament for negotiations, the Commission will require governments to assess potential vulnerabilities. It will also have the power to decide whether a country, such as the U.S., can be trusted to provide technology for the most sensitive sectors of the European economy, two people briefed with the latest details told POLITICO.
But national governments will be largely left to determine how to act to protect themselves from foreign vulnerabilities, leaving them to weigh the risk of antagonizing Washington.
The Commission has trodden carefully in its dealings with the Trump administration, taking pains not to derail a freshly inked trade deal that helped stave off the worst of the U.S. president’s threatened tariffs. It will be careful as it unveils its tech sovereignty package, not to appear to be singling out American companies.
“Technological sovereignty remains grounded in openness, partnership, and fair competition and does not equate isolation, protectionism, or tech decoupling,” the Commission is set to say as it unveils its package, according to the early draft obtained by POLITICO.
The trepidation is evident in other actions the Commission is taking. Even as Brussels prepares to declare tech independence, the Commission is proposing that the EU join Pax Silica, a new U.S.-led club aimed at securing artificial intelligence supply chains, according to an undated preparatory document for a meeting of EU ambassadors Wednesday.
Trump may have given Europe’s tech sovereignty push its momentum. He has also given Brussels every reason to proceed cautiously.
