On Dec. 1, President Ursula von der Leyen, leader of the European Commission since 2019, launched a new set of mandates with a new team of commissioners. On Dec. 6, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), held a webinar outlining seven key policy recommendations for the new commission to consider, especially in light of the incoming U.S. administration.
Titled, “A European Tech Agenda 2.0: How Europe Can Harness Tech Innovation to Compete on the World Stage,” the program featured CEPA experts: Sam Greene, director of the Democratic Resilience Program, Bill Echikson, non-resident senior fellow, Marija Golubeva, distinguished fellow and Volodymyr Dubovyk, non-resident senior fellow.
Prior to the broadcast, CEPA released a report outlining the suggestions. CEPA noted that Europe trails the U.S. and China in innovation and growth. “Only four of the world’s top 50 tech companies are European,” the report stated. “Catching up means embracing tech, not denigrating it, and dropping dreams of European digital sovereignty in favor of digital solidarity with democratic allies.”
CEPA also noted that the European Commission has made reducing tech regulation a top priority, “passing a slew of new laws increasing the responsibility of platforms and attempting to thwart so-called digital ‘gatekeepers.’ But Europe’s digital transformation is far from complete. The continent faces major challenges, from security to economic competitiveness.”
In response to such headwinds, CEPA recommends taking a “regulatory pause.” The report also recommended dropping digital sovereignty and embracing “digital solidarity.” The report’s authors said: “Europe can’t go it alone when it comes to building a competitive tech sector. The new economies of scale required by AI and data aggregation require solutions that European companies will be challenged to provide. The danger is that Europeans will look to China to fill these needs, which would be a mistake.”
Other recommendations include better alignment with China, investing in AI, shoring up digital security measures and working with the U.S. “While it may prove difficult to deal with President Trump, Europe should try,” the CEPA report noted. “Instead of racing ahead with regulation, it should propose to get ahead of the curve and attempt to coordinate transatlantic regulation on emerging technologies.”
Regarding digital security and regulatory issues, the EU faced a recent challenge when Russia was blamed for foreign interference in Romania’s Nov. 24 presidential election. Last week, the EU ordered TikTok to freeze data linked to the elections. The EU said it issued a “retention order,” served under the Digital Services Act, which regulates how the large social media companies operate in Europe.
TikTok quickly issued a statement in response, noting that the social media platform prohibits “covert influence operations and remains constantly vigilant against attempts to use deceptive behaviors and manipulate our platform. We have reported removing over 40 new covert influence networks this year so far, including three in Romania in recent months.”
On the webinar, Echikson said the Romanian TikTok issue “is illustrative of the challenges” facing the EU. “There’s not only TikTok, though, there’s also X,” he said. “Europe has passed a new law called the Digital Services Act, which is supposed to regulate this and punish offenders who propagate illegal speech. It’s always a balancing act around what the platforms should be. [The EU] shouldn’t be forced to sort of censor and to monitor all the speech going on. The real challenge for Europe is enforcement, and enforcing these rules is proving to be very, very difficult. We still have the new law, but no real fines and no real signs of how hard and what would be effective solutions. So, I think it’s going to be an ongoing challenge.”
The panelists then discussed Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine, and how various countries align with their support. Then, there is President-elect Trump to consider. Berlin noted that the U.S. and Europe have deep economic and political ties. “However, Trump will use his personality and his style to try to pressure Europeans to give him more favorable conditions on trade deals, in particular, on one of the topics mentioned already, on the regulation of American tech companies.” Berlin said it will likely take the form of threatening language as a way “to try to seed concessions out of Europe when it comes to making deals.”
And then there’s China. Berlin wondered how the new commission would shift its view in terms of China policy. “I would say that depends, above all, on China,” Berlin said. “We’ve seen increasing evidence of hacks and sabotage linked to Chinese actors. And if this continues, the more stringent European diplomacy will become. Everybody wants strong relations with China, and unfortunately, also due to China’s support of Russia in Russia’s war against Ukraine, it’s become increasingly difficult to view China’s role as neutral or as a potential peacemaker in that conflict, but rather as someone who’s holding up the Russian side.”
