French President Emmanuel Macron urges Europe to reduce its reliance on American and Chinese tech companies to secure its digital sovereignty, advocating for the development of European industrial champions and coordinated action across the EU.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Europe risks losing control of its digital future unless it stops relying on American and Chinese technology companies and builds its own industrial champions.
Macron told the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty in Berlin on Tuesday that Europe “does not want to be the client of the big entrepreneurs or the big solutions being provided, either from the US or from China.”He stressed that full dependence on foreign platforms would undermine competitiveness and democratic resilience.“If we let the Americans and the Chinese have all the champions, one thing is certain: we may have the best regulations in the world, but we won’t be regulating anything,” he said.“Our goal is to design our own solutions, preserve our sovereignty, and refuse to become a vassal,' he said.Macron said the EU had entered a new phase of global technological competition spanning AI, cloud services, semiconductors and quantum computing.Calling for a “Franco-German reflex” on digital policy, he said the geopolitical landscape demanded coordinated European action, including simplified regulations, deeper capital markets and priority support for European companies in public procurement.He also backed stronger safeguards for European data and warned of “extraterritorial enforcement of foreign laws” if the bloc continues storing sensitive information on non-European platforms.Macron said Europe has “all the assets to succeed,” pointing to its talent pool, expanding computing capacity and a 450-million-strong single market.But he stressed that execution is now paramount. “Adoption is the new race. If we want to be sovereign, we must innovate, protect the key building blocks and accelerate the rise of European leaders,” he added.GermanyGerman Chancellor Friedrich Merz, on the other hand, also called for swift steps toward European digital sovereignty and reduced dependencies on the US and China, warning that the future will be decided through digital technologies.'The tectonic shifts we're witnessing around the world—in political and economic centres of power—require swift action in the digital sphere, as the questions of the future will be decided in the digital realm,' Merz said at the Summit.'We are seeing the systemic rivalry between the United States and China—two major powers, also two digital superpowers—which are vying for technological leadership.Europe must not cede this field to them,” he stressed.The conservative leader made the remarks at a summit he co-hosted with French President Emmanuel Macron, which brought together around 900 representatives from politics, business, science, and civil society to discuss Europe's independent and secure digital future.
Digital Sovereignty European Union Emmanuel Macron Technology Geopolitics
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