Report from Politico
In Brief – Although EU-wide concerns with economic and strategic vulnerabilities caused by overwhelming reliance on non-European technology providers have taken hold on the continent and calls for “digital sovereignty” are increasingly commonplace, division between Germany and France are impacting policy decisiveness. France has long pursued a more centralized idea of digital development, focusing on national independence in key technologies, while Germany is pushing for a more market-orientated approach that remains open to collaboration with US-based digital giants who have made significant investments in Germany and are key digital services suppliers to its industrial leaders. An official with German software giant SAP described the differing strategic perspectives saying, France has a “more state-driven approach focusing on national independence and self-sufficiency in key technologies” with Germany’s emphasis on “European cooperation and market-oriented solutions.” A November 18 Summit on European Digital Sovereignty in Berlin, co-hosted by Germany and France, is a headline event that will include French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Context – The massive disruptions in US-EU relations in the first year of the second Trump presidency go far beyond tech regulation, but Administration criticism of European tech and AI policies have definitely added to tensions. Nearly 100 European companies and trade groups called on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and digital chief Henna Virkkunen in March to take “radical action” for Europe to become more technologically independent. The Eurostack Initiative is most noteworthy, calling for concerted efforts across all levels of the digital ecosystem, including chips, computing, connectivity, applications, and artificial intelligence. But AI illustrates current scale differences, with recent OpenAI investment deals, including with Nvidia, AMD and Oracle, part of an estimated $1 trillion in recent US industry funding, while two recent Commission AI growth plans proposed an added billion euros to advance European AI.