Europe

Europe’s pursuit of digital sovereignty rests on a flawed premise: that competing with the United States, rather than China, should be the central priority. To advance this goal, Brussels has embraced the so-called “Airbus model”—the belief that the government-led coordination that created an aerospace champion can be replicated to achieve dominance in semiconductors, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). The idea is seductive and gaining traction, but the analogy is unproven and misguided.

The EU’s €376 million fine against Intel for decades-old conduct risks weakening a struggling Western chipmaker at a time when China is heavily investing to dominate the semiconductor industry.

The European Commission’s DMA action against Meta reveals a strategy of using data protection law principles to stretch competition rules beyond their intended scope—ultimately setting a compliance bar no gatekeeper can meet, infantilizing users, and selectively targeting successful integrated American platforms.

China has spent the last five years escalating a coordinated cyber campaign against Europe—targeting lawmakers, infrastructure, and institutions—even as the EU considers deepening economic ties, exposing a dangerous contradiction in its approach to Beijing.

Germany’s attempt to enforce its own version of the EU’s Digital Markets Act represents another antitrust front against U.S. tech companies and exposes the problematic redundancy of European digital regulation.

Instead of distancing itself from the United States through regulation, the EU must prioritize a transatlantic tech alliance as the only viable way to compete with China and protect shared democratic interests.

Over the past decade, Europe has ceded leadership in innovation to the U.S. and China. Now, the U.S. must learn from the EU’s missteps to ensure that it maintains technological preeminence in the coming decades.

In its push for digital sovereignty, the European Commission is reportedly planning to replace Microsoft Azure with the French cloud provider OVHcloud or another European alternative. But this move, while politically symbolic, would be costly. Far from enhancing security, this migration would sacrifice sound procurement and EU legal obligations in service of a hollow vision of digital nationalism.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act was sold as a blueprint for fairness and innovation. But instead of fostering competition, the DMA risks turning Europe into a regulatory island—more isolated, less competitive, and increasingly irrelevant on the world stage.

Joseph Coniglio speaks about the Digital Markets Act and cybersecurity at a panel hosted by the European Centre for International Political Economy.