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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A group of technology companies and lobbyists want the European Commission (EC) to take action to reduce the region's reliance on foreign-owned digital services and infrastructure.
In an open letter to EC President Ursula von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen, the group of nearly 100 organizations proposed the creation of a sovereign infrastructure fund to invest in key technology and lessen dependence on US corporations.
The letter points to recent events, including the farcical Munich Security Conference, as a sign of "the stark geopolitical reality Europe is now facing," and says that building strategic autonomy in key sectors is now an urgent imperative for European countries.
Signatories include aerospace giant Airbus, France's Dassault Systèmes, European cloud operator OVHcloud, chip designer SiPearl, open source biz Nextcloud, and a host of others including organizations such as the European Startup Network.
OVHcloud said the group was calling "for a collective industrial policy strategy to strengthen Europe's competitiveness and strategic autonomy. We are convinced this is the premise of what we hope will be a larger movement of the entire ecosystem."
Proposals include the sovereign infrastructure fund, which would be able to support public investment, especially in capital-intensive sectors like semiconductors, with "significant additional commitment of funds allocated and/or underwritten" by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and national public funding bodies.
It also suggests there should be a formal requirement for the public sector to "buy European" and source their IT requirements from European-led and assembled solutions, while recognizing that these may involve complex supply chains with foreign components.
[...] This isn't the first time that concerns about US hegemony in technology have been raised. Recently, the DARE project launched to develop hardware and software based on the open RISC-V architecture, backed by EuroHPC JU funding, while fears have been aired about the dominance of American-owned cloud companies in the European market.
Such concerns have been heightened by recent actions, such as the suggestion that the US might cut off access to Starlink internet services in Ukraine as a political bargaining strategy. Starlink owner Elon Musk later denied that this would ever happen.
The letter notes that these issues have already been set out by the EuroStack initiative, made up of many of the companies that signed the letter to EC President von der Leyen. The Register asked the European Commission to comment.
On the other side of the pond, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) recently published a report claiming that US companies face "substantial financial burdens" due to the European Union's digital regulations.
It says that US tech companies are losing "billions" through having to comply with regulations such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and having to obtain user consent for their data to be used for advertising purposes.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2025, @04:06PM (6 children)
I don't have time to refute you, but you're very one-sided. I only wish we (USA) had NOT helped you in WWI or 1940s. The $ and lives we lost, and what we get in return, smug arrogant one-sided mocking? So Trump is finally trying to even things up, and instead of looking at everything and being gracious, you're acting like a little child who got caught doing something bad but is 100% ego-driven, rude, smug, arrogant, flippant. You're just making more and more of us (USA) happy to stop helping you.
On a more positive note, I'm encouraged to see much of Europe recognizing the need to strengthen your own military and defense against, well, mainly Putin.
The credit card is maxxed out, time to start paying down the debt.
(I'll let out a little secret- in spite of your horrible attitudes, we (USA) will come to your aid, again, if things get bad enough. But we might wait it out a bit first.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday March 22 2025, @04:40PM
That's what we in Canada say when talking about how Trump treats all his 'enemies' as he takes revenge. He is a CHILD and only knows how to hit back at his perceived enemies.
Remember when he was going to lower the price of eggs? On day one, he was going to do that.
Instead, all he has done is throw tantrums and hit back at his 'enemies'. He is paranoid, he is a liar, he is an adulterer and a failed businessman.
He is a loser. A hugely, biggly American loser.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 5, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday March 22 2025, @04:54PM
US losses were about 250,000 about (0.17% of the US population in 1945) killed in the European theater.
European losses were:
I haven't include figures for the Baltic states, Finland, Norway or Sweden. I think the point is made.
We are grateful for your involvement. The French village in which I now live has a special day to remember being freed by US forces. It has 3 different monuments to US dead, a wreath is placed at each one. The ceremonies are well attended and school children also participate. You contribution is not forgotten.
Your participation enabled a 2nd front to be established in order to divide Germany's forces between the western front and the eastern front. But you seem to be ignoring the European losses. Perhaps you think Europe was sat around doing nothing until the US got involved.
You lost far more though in the Pacific arena, but the UK and others also fought in the Far East providing land, air and sea forces.
Since that we have as Europeans supported wars alongside you in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, the Balkans, and many other places. I had both UK and US military forces under my administrative command in Bosnia. Yesterday, on FlightRadar24, I watched US, UK, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia flying air missions in support of each other in the Baltic and Black Sea regions.
The US has a habit of mocking France - yet they lost almost 10 times the number of losses you experienced in the whole of Europe. Poland lost 100 times your losses. We are stronger united - but that lesson is quickly being forgotten.
Being thrown to the mercy of Russia doesn't impress us at all. Trump should get his Nobel Peace Prize by doing something to justify it.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Saturday March 22 2025, @06:28PM
> The $ and lives we lost, and what we get in return, smug arrogant one-sided mocking?
I am grateful for the alliance with USA, both during the 20th century and into the 21st century. NATO is a good thing.
Having said that, US joined the war after they were attacked by the Axis powers (Pearl Harbour); the declaration of war was not an act of altruism. I realise they provided indirect support particularly to Britain before that point. I also realise that the US presence in the European theatre was not strictly necessary, but I believe that there were strong strategic reasons for supporting the European war directly given the war in the Pacific.
It's worth also pointing out that US did quite well economically during, and following WW2. One might argue that this would have occurred regardless of the outcome of the war. It's also worth noting there was a recession in the year or two following the end of WW2.
Economics don't replace lives lost of course. And I want to reiterate that Europeans are grateful for the alliance with USA. It's an important message that both sides must remember: together we are stronger.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2025, @12:14AM
I wish we (the rest of usa), never had to hear from jackasses like you.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday March 23 2025, @05:59AM (1 child)
Just because someone else - not you - fought and died for Europe doesn't mean you have a blank check for everyone else to put up with your bullshit.
Back at you on that one. Don't waste our time with imaginary tales of what Trump allegedly is "trying". Trump is a con artist and walking dumpster fire. Always has been.
I was willing to put up with him because DOGE sounds like it might go somewhere. In a few months, I've been proven very wrong. For me the line was crossed when Trump started mouthing off about impeaching judges doing their jobs (which happened to be blocking some illegal Trump administration actions). Actually carrying that impeachment out would be breaking the law on top of breaking the law. Not "working overtime to restore the rule of law" [thespectator.com]. Don't piss on me and call it rain.
Look, you can continue to believe whatever you want, but you've been had.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23 2025, @09:59AM
I wonder whether the current/near future USA would qualify for regime change by the USA's own standards for other countries... Ignoring the fact that the USA has tons of nukes which would of course disqualify it.
I mean:
1) Has oil
2) Sponsors and creates terrorists
🤣