The Commission presented a plan on Wednesday to curb Europe’s reliance on foreign tech providers, a response to fears that such dependencies could be weaponized — including by the U.S., whose companies dominate the digital services powering the modern economy.
Critics argue the proposed cure is heavy on wishful thinking and light on direct confrontation with tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon, a showdown they believe is necessary for the plan to be effective.
“The proposal remains too permissive,” said Christophe Grudler, a French centrist member of the Parliament. He noted it would allow foreign companies to service some sensitive parts of the European economy.
The Cloud and AI Development Act, the package’s centerpiece, introduces a four-level certification scheme that public officials would be required to use to rate digital tools according to their vulnerability to foreign interference. In some cases, public bodies would be required to replace foreign services with European alternatives.
And yet, under the proposal, large swathes of the European market could still be left open to U.S. tech giants. Even blocking them from the most sensitive sectors of the economy would depend on whether the Commission or EU countries have the political will to risk angering Washington.
“I would have liked to hear more clearly from the Commission that the U.S. is not a trusted partner anymore for the European public sector, like China isn’t,” Aura Salla, a center-right member of the Parliament, told the EU’s tech commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, during a committee hearing after the package was presented.
