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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: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Saturday March 22 2025, @07:01PM (2 children)
Nor should you.
You're barking at the wrong tree.
Regardless, from where I'm standing, the US been trying to get Europe to increase military spending in preparations for war with Russia since at least the 2008 Russo-Georgian War to no avail. And don't forget that the annexation of Crimea was back in 2014 should have jolted Europe into action without the US having to say anything. So, scaring Europe straight by starting to shop for new allies IS the only proved way to get the EU to get its act together before its too late.
Oh but you see, the EU did such a good job at convincing Biden that selling heavy guided bombs to Israel is a grave violation of international law, with it risking the lives of those innocent Gazans and all, that Trump, being the great humanitarian law abiding peace activist that he is, just couldn't look away from Ukraine's attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure and all those poor Russian children shaking in the dead of winter... Those heartless warmongering Europeans refusing Putin's ceasefire proposal just because it doesn't offer any security guarantees... Nazis I hear... /s
( The /s stands for schadenfreude. )
But seriously, whether Trump is a Manchurian candidate or just trying to scare you straight, Europe really needs to get a military and a military-industrial sector going before its too late for everyone's sake. And seeing how Putin's tanks aren't marching down Warsaw's main street quite just yet, it's very likely Trump cutting you off cold-turkey now is doing you a favor and you should be thanking him rather than criticizing him.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 22 2025, @09:12PM (1 child)
Yeah, thanks Trump for pushing an old lady down the stairs.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday March 22 2025, @10:14PM
The old lady been stuck on the top floor since '08 since Georgia got invaded, through '14 when Crimea got annexed, '22 as Ukraine was re-invaded and '24 during North Korean troops joined in.
The bitch needs the kicking.
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