EU Plots To Abandon US Tech (politico.eu)
- Reference: 0183587266
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/06/03/2028239/eu-plots-to-abandon-us-tech
- Source link: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-plots-long-game-against-us-digital-supremacy/
> The EU is moving to counter American dominance in technology by reaching for one of the oldest tools in its arsenal: industrial strategy. As the European Commission unveiled a plan Wednesday to reduce Europe's reliance on the foreign technology providers that underpin the modern economy, it was careful to stress that it was not picking a fight with U.S. digital giants. Instead, the tech sovereignty package -- motivated in no small part by U.S. President Donald Trump's weaponization of Europe's dependence on American firms -- takes a longer-term view: [3]boost the continent's players so they can eventually challenge their U.S. rivals .
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> [...] If adopted, the package will direct public money toward products that contribute to Europe's economy and independence from foreign firms; cut red tape for data centers; beef up research and innovation through "leadership initiatives"; incentivize countries to share digital capacities in a new "Eurocloud" forum; and require EU governments to come up with national strategies to boost the adoption of cutting-edge tech, including AI. The package will also seek to ramp up the bloc's demand for advanced chips -- a response to criticism by the industry -- with a series of industrial initiatives to revise a 2023 chips law.
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> [...] As part of its proposal to keep a list of trustworthy countries, the Commission would require EU governments to run a so-called "sovereignty risk assessment" for every digital service they rely on, measuring foreign control, potential access to sensitive data and the risk of operational disruption. Within a year, they would have to determine the appropriate level of protection for each public sector and procure digital services accordingly -- unless they can prove doing so would come at a "disproportionate cost," the proposal reads. However, the Commission reserves the right to overrule their assessment in future legislation if it believes they downplayed the risks. The Commission estimated that just one percent of Europe's public services are so sensitive that they would be required under the proposed certification scheme to rely on the strict level that totally excludes foreign technology.
"We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. "This is about protecting our citizens, defending our interests and making our own choices."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~whitroth
[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/30/1847204/international-criminal-court-to-ditch-microsoft-office-for-european-open-source-alternative
[3] https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-plots-long-game-against-us-digital-supremacy/
Tech sovereignty is a survival need. Good on 'em! (Score:5, Insightful)
US tech is a threat to everyone not of the Epstein class who control it. The US is a business, not a country, and stands for nothing but profit.
That has many practical rewards but no reasons exist to subordinate one's own nation and people to the American kleptarchy which is best kept at a distance.
Re:Tech sovereignty is a survival need. Good on 'e (Score:5, Interesting)
So this isn't about tech sovereignty per se this is because America has gone so far off the rails that we can no longer be trusted.
You will note that Europe isn't busy doing the same thing with Chinese electronics and software. That's because as brutal a regime as China is they are at least predictable. As long as the money flows they're not going to do anything too crazy.
In the era of a second term of trump that is no longer true for america. All bets are off and God only knows what's going to happen.
I don't think people really can process just how crazy it is that the president of the United States threatened to seize Greenland by force and that the only reason he stopped is that Congress told him no. And to be clear not all of Congress just enough of it that he had to listen on that one issue...
At a certain point crazy is so fucking crazy that while intellectually you know it's there emotionally you can't really process it. It's what I call the Dick Cheney effect.
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Which Chinese software or hardware does the EU depend on again? No government is using "Xiaomi cloud" to run digital services on it.
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Did you seriously write that comment or are you just a AI chatbot? Honestly can't tell the difference anymore.
You might want to look up where most telecommunications hardware comes from regardless of what the rules and regs say. Or fuck where do you think phones are made? Yeah some of them are made in India not anywhere close to all of them.
People will buy from dictators all day long as long as those dictators are predictable.
Re: Tech sovereignty is a survival need. Good on ' (Score:2)
> Did you seriously write that comment or are you just a AI chatbot? Honestly can't tell the difference anymore.
You never could, and you were never intended to. It wasn't within the project scope.
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> as brutal a regime as China is they are at least predictable. As long as the money flows they're not going to do anything too crazy.
That is a hope.
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> US tech is a threat to everyone not of the Epstein class who control it. The US is a business, not a country, and stands for nothing but profit.
so is the eu, just a shabbier business. i have always said that any public service should be run on entirely on opensource, by principle and for transparency, redundancy and accountability, but this will be just replacing us-epstein control with eu-epstein control, neither gives a damn about the public. given the growing intolerance, bigotry and authoritarianism in the eu this is going to suck and will be an opportinuty to fuck over the public even more. and ofc another massive grift incoming to repackage o
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The Jollaphone with with SailfishOS. [1]https://sailfishos.org/ [sailfishos.org] is the big one.
I think American's don't understand that the US has slowly gone overboard with things like AI that don't fit the values of other countries. This website even often has articles about how Europe's economy is falling behind while ignoring the priorities of people in these countries.
The more I have to interact with AI in private spaces outside of work, the more convinced that the assassination of some of the AI CEOs are coming. Parti
[1] https://sailfishos.org/
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I blame *Layer 7* we never needed it.
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pretty happy with my Fairphone 6
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> When will the people be able to purchase the euPhone?
And will the phone be euPhonious? I guess it must, by definition! ;-)
EU will not Deregulate To Accomplish This (Score:4, Insightful)
Dumping Microsoft has some pain points but is doable with some work. However actually competing with Microsoft and other tech companies in software and AI is an entirely different matter. The EU has already massively regulated software environment through GDPR, DSA, CRA, the AI Act, and more. EU companies face so many hurdles around compliance that's its basically impossible to create a startup without backing by billionaires - many of whom have publicly stated they would never start a software company in the EU for these reasons. Now also take into account that AI also requires power generation, and the regulatory hurdles go from basically impossible to 'only attempt this if you love pain.'
Re:EU will not Deregulate To Accomplish This (Score:5, Informative)
> The EU has already massively regulated software environment through GDPR, DSA, CRA, the AI Act, and more.
Literally all companies currently operating in the EU, including US tech giants are required to comply with these too. There is this fantasy that regulation alone prevents alternative players in the EU when in reality the "persecution" of US tech companies (as the US government would tell the story) is nothing more than actually demonstrating there's a level playing field.
> EU companies face so many hurdles around compliance that's its basically impossible to create a startup without backing by billionaires
The EU has literally countless software companies including startups. One of the major players in AI is French. Heck the *original* AI company (now owned by Google) was UK based - back when they were under the full EU regulations. The problem isn't startups, the problem is getting US companies to fuck off and stop destroying competition through acquisition (e.g. Kyndryl is the world's largest data services provider with double digit billions in the bank. Why don't they build their own datacentre in the Netherlands instead of attempting to purchase Solvinity?)
> many of whom have publicly stated they would never start a software company in the EU for these reasons
Yes billionaires prefer to invest is regulatory markets that allow the fucking over of the population and the development of wholesale monopolies. My friend, you can keep your billionaires. Don't want them.
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Firstly, the entire point is that tech giants can comply while smaller companies CAN'T. Regulations make it easier for large companies and large companies alone by making it arduous to operate without massive funding. To your second point, no is saying EU can't invent, it's that a profitable business is very difficult to continue operating at a loss. Designing an amazing software to run is doable but try implementing it and managing the headache of regulations. Billionaires investing in the US doesn't mean
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> Billionaires investing in the US doesn't mean fucking over anyone ...
Billionaires in the US only invest there because they pay next to no income tax. The consequence of that is that the middle class gradually disappears. The remaining non-one-percenters work two or more jobs to stay afloat and are only one paycheque, health crisis, or vehicle failure away from financial ruin.
So tell me again how "investing in the US doesn't mean fucking over anyone".
Re: EU will not Deregulate To Accomplish This (Score:2)
They can fine them all they want, but they'll have no means of collecting on it. Like...ever. They could possibly do what France did when they kidnapped the telegram CEO because the app doesn't comply with French censorship requirements. But afaik, they never really got anything from that. All the board really has to do, in either case, is appoint a new CEO instead of paying the ransom.
Re: EU will not Deregulate To Accomplish This (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is more that tech giants have been allowed to operate in anti competitive ways for decades and have squashed competition.
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EU regulators were perfectly capable of blocking any US purchase of EU companies at any time. They were perfectly happy taking US money all this time. It's ridiculous to now complain about all that money the EU earned.
Re:EU will not Deregulate To Accomplish This (Score:5, Informative)
I used to work for a small German software company for 11 years. That company used to be a world leader in its specific niche. Only left after the company has been acquired by an American company which turned everything to shit.
EU regulations can be a pain in the arse sometimes, but they aren't the problem. American businesses having easy access to stupid money that they use to get rid of European competitor is the problem.
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You take Unix (Linux nowadays) and C, then develop platform toolboxes like C++ standardize those, you have the European regulatory environment. Beyond that is the Open Source and Regional development efforts that are now mature. The entire world was content to consider Unix and C the standards and rightly so. Going back 40 years or so, we have Java, Office productivity, then corps like SAP very much not just US efforts.
Dude deregulation isn't a panacea (Score:2)
You need to look up what a mother fucking chesterton's fences.
Deregulating isn't going to create some magical world of competition and wonder and beauty. All it's going to do is what a handful of psychopaths abuse people's privacy and civil rights. Basically the exact same problem the United States has right now where finance Bros have used technology to do all sorts of fucked up shit and get us to where we are right now.
All Europe has to do if it wants to compete with Microsoft is take government m
Okay then, that was always allowed (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe always had the capability and opportunity to create European alternatives to US technology. There was never anything stopping them from going that route at any time. In fact, I welcome this work as an American. As a consumer of technology, I'd love to see some alternatives to the US technologies I currently use. Why Europe is approaching this as some flex on the US seems a bit ridiculous to me. This was always allowed.
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> This was always allowed.
Allowed != Recommend != Actively promoted. The EU isn't "allowing" anything with this regulation. If you use the correct word you may answer your own question.
Re:Okay then, that was always allowed (Score:4, Insightful)
Still as a American, I shrug. Europe should have been allowing, recommending, and actively promoting the creation of their own software their entire time. I think it's great that Europe is finally deciding to truly compete in technology.
The whole thing reminds me of Jerry walking out of the daycare in Rick and Morty. Yes, that was always allowed.
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> Europe should have been allowing, recommending, and actively promoting the creation of their own software their entire time... Yes, that was always allowed.
Europe had a business partner - the US - who had been (relatively) stable, predictable, reasonable, and trustworthy for many decades. Why would they duplicate the dev effort and take on the expense of creating software which would then make it more difficult to interoperate with their American business / trade partner?
I agree with you that they should have taken the hit in the name of redundancy, resilience, and independence. That's easy to see in hindsight; but when a situation evolves slowly, the need to
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Tell me again, what permits EU companies to have their customer data on systems that can be accessed by the American goverment? Isn't it currently 'standard contractual terms'? If so, why wasn't this the first to be torn up?
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Look at Microsoft history and then tell me about alternatives. If Microsoft sold MSOffice from the start there would be no MSOffice today. If the US is so great why are so many US companies based in Ireland?
Nationalism is basic social welfare for billionaires. Look at MAGA how it's destroying the constitution for the sake of Merica and its billionaires. Hurrah!
Europe is approaching this as some flex on the US because the US with it's orange clown decided that that's what needs to happen. It's not just Europ
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sure, if you believe Putin
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> ... all European countries have to do is keep importing millions of 3rd world Muslims and they'll soon be another poor, tyrannical Islamic hell hole.
I'll humour you for a moment and pretend that your fantasy is based in fact. Given that - and speaking as a Canadian - I'm not entirely sure that living in a "poor, tyrannical Islamic hell hole" is worse than living in the "poor, tyrannical Christian hell hole" that my country would become if American conquerors imported millions of themselves into Canada. And that's what der Trumpenfuhrer keeps threatening to do.
Income and Salaries will be the Judge (Score:3)
I have worked for many us companies where large parts of their engineering and development and other highly technical departments were actually based out of Europe with plenty of European employees because the American companies were willing to pay that much salary and income for those European Nationals to work for foreign companies, which in this case are fully us-based company in the high-tech sector .
Unless the salaries and income for those European employees who want to work for a European company start matching or surpassing those salaries that they could make as a foreign worker for US tech firm, then Europe will not be able to persuade any of the European tech workers that are currently employed by hundreds of US firms changing their employer allegiance to a European employer.
The only time in my multi-decade career in technology and consulting have I actually worked for a european-based company within America for a US non-technical large Fortune 100 company. The principal owner of my contract was a large European IT firm well known for many things who then contracted me out to an American company here that was not a technology company. It was a good contract but it only lasted a few years and then it went away once the project ended.
Punish and Tax EU Nations Working for US Firms
But fundamentally that choice came down to who is willing to pay more money for employees unless Europe starts to impose some additional taxes on those European Nationals who are foreign workers to US tech firms to punish them for working outside of EU, which sounds exactly which is what they would probably try to do based on the EU heavy regulation that they just love to impose on everyone and rightfully so based on their own ideologies.
Digital Equipment Corporation (Score:2)
What does a defunct US tech firm have to do with this story? Every time I see a story about AI I get angry. Then I see stories like this and think well... some editors deserve to lose their job to computers.
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There's nobody left on the staff here that knows who DEC was.
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Mouse-over your name to the upper right, select "Options", then under "Layout" uncheck "Icons" and save. No more Borg Gates, No more DEC logo. One less thing to get worked up about.
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Fear not! It's entirely possible the category was chosen by an AI. Editorial automation would probably reduce the error rate here.
Project Status Report? (Score:4, Interesting)
The story announcing the International Criminal Court (ICC) leaving Microsoft Office is 8 months old now. Is there any status report on the project? Or, have they abandoned the plan already?
And the year of the desktop (Score:1)
These announcements pop-up periodically through the years. When the non us tech inevitably lixus based we will get article able this being the year of the Linux desktop. It's cyclical and stupid.
About time! (Score:2)
Replacing the Digital Equipment Corporation tech is at least 40 years overdue. And for Slashdot to change the logo, too.
Good Luck (Score:2)
And I mean that sincerely. Without meaningful competition, progress tends to slow, and everyone can agree current US tech companies could use some competition at the moment.
That being said, no country on this Earth can completely and absolutely decouple from US made goods and services while maintaining a modern computing and networking stack. China is struggling to do that at the moment, and they have the best potential opportunity to succeed.
The EU cannot produce a modern homegrown CPU that does not have U
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> The EU cannot produce a modern homegrown CPU that does not have US technology embedded in it.
ARM was produced in the UK at the time the UK was part of the EC/EU. And a quick looksee at CPU development over the decades shows there's no US monopoly in producing CPUs.
As for GNU/Linux, sure, GNU is American, but it's free, why not use it if it's not there free for the taking. But at the time GNU/Linux was released, Minix was virtually as functional - had Tanenbaum released it under the GPL or a more permis
I can't disagree (Score:1)
American big tech is untrustworthy at its core. In the boardroom, in the back room, and in the data center. They have no guard rails, no good law (at the present) that makes them play nice. I think that not just Europe needs to be looking at digital sovereignty. Japan, Australia, Canada, are you listening? Most of the big tech companies CAN'T be trusted, so now it's time to start rolling your own, so to speak. Good luck.
EU Depenency (Score:1)
EU can cry out loud about decoupling from USA, but there is a problem of no domestic hardware. Mobile: Depend on Google/ IOS from software point, they can fork androind the same way China did and come with their on mobile platform (HarmonyOS), but who is going to manufacturing ship form them? Kirin, X-Ring01, etc is China CPU. MediaTek is Taiwan Qualcomm is USA Tensor is google Exynos is Samsung Etc, EU doe not have their own mobile CPU, while they can develop their own mobile OS, they need to design their
Punch cards and the 35 hour work week... (Score:1)
Europe does not demand the productivity (35 hour work week?) from its workers that US companies have traditionally demanded. The less regulated US system lets entrepreneurs work 120 hour weeks with the intension of making big bucks and being able to keep that wealth. This seems to be changing. But If the US did not exist, I wonder if we would all still be programming using punch cards.
Inconsistency (Score:2)
After WWII, the thought was that increasing trade and cooperation would reduce conflict.
It did for a while, then governments started using trade as a weapon.
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It's intellectual laziness. Our rulers are just people, after all.
The goal should have been self-sufficiency on critical infrastructure and food supply, then let non-critical trade build relationships and trust over time.
That and a global NATO-like club with a rule like "everyone is obligated to take action against a member who attacks another member" for military security.
It's still not perfect, because people lie, but there's nothing you can do about that.
US Tech = EU Income from fines (Score:1)
If the EU wants to establish tech sovereignty that's a good thing for them, but it does not look too likely to me. Their Linux and Free Software adoption will probably be a success, but successful proprietary software from the EU is quite rare. The EU has been propping up its revenue for several years by imposing enormous cash penalties on US tech companies instead of nurturing their own tech companies and collecting taxes from them. The EU regulatory state will make it very difficult for anyone to start
Nonsense. The EU isn't "plotting" anything. (Score:3)
It's only that now, roughly 25 years late, even the dimest of dimwitts in the political sphere have noticed that proprietary software is shitty by design and expensive and thus plan to move to FOSS rather than continue spending trillions of Euros on software that experts have downloaded for free and in better quality from the intarwebs for decades now. One should never say never I guess.
It's only by coincidence that that software (mostly) happens to come out of the US. Which is totally beside the point of why FOSS is gaining traction anyway. FOSS from the US will certainly be part of that transition too.
Stupid is as stupid does (Score:5, Insightful)
There are some guns you can only fire once, so you save that shot for only the most existential of risks.
If you're the US you do it on a whim, and it not only never works again but you damage political and business relationships that reduce your nation's influence and hurt your economy.
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Thanks, Trump
Trump is a symptom, not a cause (Score:2)
AI makes software a much cheaper commodity and Law of Demeter is superceding the aging framework of fiat currency.
[1]https://www.scry.llc/2025/05/0... [scry.llc]
"Monetary reality shapes resource use and efficiency. The Age Of Fiat created enormous dysfunctionality and dislocation of resources which will likely reverse soon"
[2]https://www.scry.llc/2025/12/0... [scry.llc]
"Globalism is an artifact of a transitional condition: widespread acceptance of fiat currency. As its masking power weakens, organizations like the BRICS countries are
[1] https://www.scry.llc/2025/05/01/law-of-demeter/
[2] https://www.scry.llc/2025/12/09/globalism-via-fiat/
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If the EU switches to open source, it will be the best thing Trump has done. Literally.
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> If the EU switches to open source, it will be the best thing Trump has done. Literally.
Its like software patents. Its not the patents that are good, but the incentive to work around them.
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> Thanks, Trump
He can't hear you over all the WINNING!
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Oh, so that's why iPhones don't have lightning connectors anymore!