The EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials.
“We are very committed to our rules when it comes to the digital world,” Virkkunen said in an interview with European newspapers, including the Guardian. “We want to make sure that our digital environment in the European Union … that it is fair and it’s safe and it’s also democratic.”
She gently pushed back at suggestions that EU digital regulations could be considered trade barriers, saying the same rules applied to all companies, whether European, American or Chinese. “We are not specially targeting certain companies, but we have this risk-based approach in all our rules.”
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Europe refused to bow to Apple; what makes Trump think they’ll bow to him?
I like the digital sovereignty stuff. Just wish they’d get rid of the AI act and some other rather heavyhanded, regressive rules. Then I’d probably go to Zurich and try to get into the tech scene there.
What do you dislike about the AI act?
Thank you EU, your rules make the Internet better for all of us.
-Californian
Please add more tech restrictions and save us americans from our tech oligarchs.
Good news. We stand firm. (or surely somebody will come and tell me I am too naive - hopefully with sources)
not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials
One of these days I hope some country will take that stance before Trumplon even gets a chance to play out his stick/carrot “art” of the deal. Because that’s how transparent he is, and how artless his deals are.
the same rules applied to all companies, whether European, American or Chinese.
This is something the Trumplon posse needs to hear more often.
Personally I would prefer if they preferred European companies in some cases, especially when it came to strategic matters and the danger of supply chain attacks or vendor lock-in. Or, even better, things that aren’t tied to any single company like open source projects.
This is what secnumcloud is in France, I hope Europe follows a similar approach.
Obviously Open Source is the way to go, but excluding non-European companies would just be playing the same stupid game the Trump administration is playing. We should stick to sensible regulations and let anyone who adheres to the rules play.
Well, the problem is that in a situation like the one we are in right now having software processes all locked into American companies is actually a huge strategic problem in certain areas so it makes sense to limit those (e.g. government, military,…) to software where that control can’t be taken away by a foreign power. So essentially those should be under our control for much the same reasons energy and food production should be.
Lightning forever, USB-C never!
- Trump’s Friend, Tim Apple.
Excellent news here, the EU gets a lot of flak because the right choices are rarely the popular ones.
And the people who hate the right choices are rarely the ones who hold back on the propaganda front.
I’ve posted this elsewhere (skip to paragraph 21 for the meaty parts). The short version is that the US demanded that trade partners implement protections for US companies in exchange for trade deals. Those trade deals are no longer present, so why don’t the governments reverse the protections since the US isn’t holding up their end of the bargain anymore?
