The European Commission has presented a sweeping package to boost homegrown technologies and reduce dependency on American and Chinese companies. Whether it will make a meaningful difference — and how the two superpowers will react — remain open questions.
The EU imports most of its tech services and products from abroad. The digital market is dominated by US giants such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, and Chinese conglomerates such as Alibaba and TikTok-owner ByteDance.
"We live in a world where geopolitics and technology are inseparable. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this," European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said.
The package seeks to boost Europe's domestic tech sector, with a heavy focus on cloud infrastructure, AI services, open source and chips.
In his landmark report on the languishing state of the European economy, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi argued that most of the recent divergence in GDP growth between the EU and the US could be explained by digital technologies.
