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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) by khallow on Sunday March 23 2025, @06:05AM (5 children)
Your gullibility is endearing, but sorry, I won't partake. I don't buy that this is somehow a part of a Trump master plan. Having said that, I don't buy that China can do long game thinking any better than Trump can. Whatever happens in the future will have the usual fubar characteristics no matter who starts it.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday March 23 2025, @09:11AM (4 children)
It's not gullibility. I've heard Witkoff in the interview screwing everyone over by saying how rational Russia is and how Hamas isn’t ideologically intractable and how Tehran can be forced through sanctions to back off on its nuclear plans with and How Qatar and the Saudis only wants peace. I know the Republicans and Trump in particular get their money off the Golf. But, while we agree this is all bullshit and that the immediate outcomes will be worsening of US relations with its allies, I also see the US and UK are bombing the Houthis to open the navel trade routes to Europe while US military expenditure is ballooning in stark contrast to the last 20 years: https://quincyinst.org/research/the-fiscal-implications-of-a-major-increase-in-u-s-military-spending/ [quincyinst.org]
So, when I put 2 and 2 together, it comes off as the US readying for a huge engagement and working towards keeping its allies on edge and ready to defend themselves. As for what goes on in Trump's head, it could be hookers and blow for all I care. What matters is where the Pentagon's generals are steering he ship. Not the team's mascot.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 23 2025, @01:11PM (3 children)
For those who don't magically know who Steve Witkoff [wikipedia.org] is, he's involved in unilateral negotiations between the US and Russia. Witkoff also chose to recognize [pravda.com.ua] the sham referendums in occupied Russian territory and a feeble Russian pretext for the war.
Sorry, I don't buy that the US has some clever plan here. But it does look like Trump is beholden to Putin for some reason.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Sunday March 23 2025, @04:57PM (2 children)
No no this isn't your typical throwing-more-money-on-defense. Total spending actually went down. This is about $50 billion worth of re-prioritizing on modernization R&D and China: https://defensescoop.com/2025/03/17/congress-defense-appropriations-2025-rdte-spending-141b/ [defensescoop.com]
Where the ballooning is coming from is venture capital investments tripling due to the focus on modernization: https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/defense-industrial-base-reagan-study-factories [axios.com]
And it's not downsizing personal either. There's actually an increase in recruitment: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/military-officials-recruiting-off-strong-start-2025-building/story?id=119762980 [go.com]
Witkoff is just following some real estate sales pitch manual 1:1. Sit through his recent Carlson interview while trying to not to barf. Once you're pass the critical threshold of disgust, you'll realize he's going through a bullet list type thing whenever he approaches a negotiation similar to one of these: https://convin.ai/blog/best-sales-pitch [convin.ai]
He's just telling his customers what they want to hear at the political level to get them to the negotiations table: The Israelis want security assurances as well as knowing the US has their back. Qatar wants to be thought of as trustworthy peace negotiators. Russia wants for its casus belli to be recognized. Hamas wants not to be treated like pariahs and that they'll be able to stay around when the war is over... But, in the end, the US has hard requirements and they're completely divorced from anything the marketing material says.
Regardless of the visuals, it's in Europe's and the US's best interest to end the war as quickly as possible regardless of how much territories Russia holds right now and focus on an arms race towards automation and nuclear missile interception. Cause, right now, China is speed running RISK while Europe is squabbling over who will put the down-payment for the carbon credits covering the deforestation required to put together artillery shells... Yes this really happened just a few weeks ago.
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 23 2025, @11:18PM (1 child)
Not for FY (Fiscal Year) 2025 which is slightly higher than FY2024. Maybe for FY2026.
Depends on what "as possible" means. Too much urgency and you'll get a bad deal from Russia, right? Meanwhile I think we need to encourage more China top-down investing. That's an excellent way to squander Chinese resources. Even Japan's MITI couldn't pull it off after they got past the catching up phase - they were more competent.
They'll need the EU and Ukraine to come to the negotiations table too. In the end, everyone has hard requirements. And sometimes in war you can't meet those hard requirements with negotiation - especially when you leave out critical parties. I'm not interested in the wheeler dealer when the basics aren't being met. Also, visuals are an important part of negotiation.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday March 24 2025, @10:19AM
From my first link:
( https://defensescoop.com/2025/03/17/congress-defense-appropriations-2025-rdte-spending-141b/ [defensescoop.com] )
It would have been too urgent in 2014. Now it's too late. Again, 26'-27'...
It's better for the EU's and Ukraine's public and politics to think the US isn't on their side and it's being forced on them so they won't resist the increased spending and military drafts in the coming years.
Look, we're back to WW1 era secret pacts and alliances. Things aren't going to be done transparently anymore.
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