Brussels wants to exclude Silicon Valley giants from sensitive European data

The philosophy of prioritizing European interests lands in the technological sphere. The European Commission has developed an ambitious technological sovereignty package aimed at reversing the enormous structural dependence that the European Union has on foreign digital products and services. Especially from the U.S. and China. The set of legislative measures — which still requires approval from the European Parliament and the Twenty-Seven — introduces a series of new criteria that could exclude Silicon Valley giants, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, from highly sensitive public tenders. For example, those handling the most critical public data of the community countries.

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The matter will surely add new elements of tension with the Donald Trump Administration, which has actively and passively criticized all the obstacles that European regulators impose on its tech companies. “We live in a world where geopolitics and technology are inseparable,” warns the European Commission’s Executive Vice President for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, who emphasizes that this “does not imply protectionism.” But it is “time for Europe to have control over its data, its supply chains, and its future in a clean and sustainable way,” challenges the commissioner.

The community proposal establishes four levels of cloud sovereignty, with criteria such as cybersecurity, infrastructure locations, or supply chains. In its most restrictive part, it ensures that data related to defense or public order are exclusively handled by community companies. “When it comes to public data, they must be solidly in Europe,” indicate community sources. The goal is to guarantee that no external component can be manipulated or interrupted by a foreign jurisdiction. The case of artificial intelligence gigafactories is also especially mentioned: the aim is to create environments immune to foreign interference and to keep strategic data and proprietary models under strict European sovereign control.

But at the other levels, Amazon, Microsoft, or Google — which currently dominate more than 70% of the cloud data market — will also find it more complicated to operate on this side of the Atlantic. Now, beyond considering price in public tenders, the EU introduces a new concept, that of added value in Europe. That is, it wants to reward those companies that demonstrate that their operations contribute to technological development on the continent. Investing in R&D or creating local employment will earn points, which disadvantages Silicon Valley tech giants if they do not have infrastructure rooted in Europe on this side of the Atlantic.

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Another key element of the community proposal is to avoid so-called kill switches, or shutdown switches controlled from abroad. That is, the power of an external element to abruptly interrupt or deny a technology for Europe, leaving European countries in panic. The community executive cites the example of the Nexperia semiconductor crisis, which threatened the supply of vital chips for European automotive as retaliation from China. The Commission wants to ensure that no one has that power against community companies. “It is time to prevent that, especially when adopting very advanced technologies, anyone can easily have the shutdown switch,” emphasize community sources.

The plan also foresees new incentives to build large European data centers through the simplification of procedures and the harmonization of standards, with the intention of tripling storage capacity in the EU within five to seven years. They are considered critical infrastructure for Europe despite the fact that, for now, Europe only has 12 gigawatts of installed capacity, a third of the U.S. capacity. Brussels estimates that achieving this will require an investment of around 200 billion euros, mostly from the private sector.

The EU offensive thus seeks to boost its European alternatives in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence to cloud computing. The approach changes. It is no longer just about regulating large American companies operating in European territory with regulations defending consumers, but about trying to promote own tech companies in a sector in which Europe is still highly dependent (80% for digital products, services, and infrastructure, according to community sources) on foreign companies. “We are not at war, but we are not at peace in today’s world either,” warns Virkkunen. “That is why it is important that we are able to control all these tools.”

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