PoliticoEurope’s big tech vision fizzles to life
- The European Union wants to keep writing the rules of the digital future, but a reality check may be in the offing instead
- The inescapable problem the EU now faces is that its digital lag is entrenched and its competitors are multiplying
It is meant to show how the bloc could harness its biggest competitive advantage – the world’s largest single market – to improve its economy and build a green future. And given the EU’s record as a serious player in digital politics, if not digital innovation, its latest brainstorms were digested eagerly in Washington and California.
But the obstacles to achieving its newest grand ambitions are daunting: the power of Silicon Valley, Beijing and increasingly Washington is born of deep reserves of capital, talent and research capabilities that Europe cannot match. The EU is also internally divided and short on money and will to turn a Brussels policy document into reality.
It could mark the end of an era. For 15 years the EU has served as the world’s leading digital police force, making up for its lack of massive technology companies by wielding tools such as multibillion-dollar antitrust fines, tax clawbacks and laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the strict privacy mandate that reshaped how companies handle data and gave consumers a lot of disclaimers to click through.
For now, the EU is not proposing any rules or laws to carry out the new vision, saying those specifics will come later. That left its advocates to insist that their policy outline “stems from European values and fundamental rights and the conviction that the human being is and should remain at the centre”.
What the EU is leaving out