German and French leaders call for reduced US tech dependence and greater European digital sovereignty amid AI race and Trump’s return
berlin: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron will jointly advocate for enhancing European digital sovereignty during Tuesday’s summit.
Leaders of Europe’s largest economies aim to reduce the continental reliance on US technology giants as the artificial intelligence competition intensifies.
Their Berlin gathering will include CEOs from major regional companies like French AI company Mistral and German software giant SAP.
German Digital Minister Carsten Wildburger stressed that Europe must build its own digital future as he attended the €11 billion data center groundbreaking ceremony.
Regarding European cooperation he said, “We can make better progress by working together.”
The summit is taking place amid growing concerns about US technological dominance following Donald Trump’s return to the presidency and raising questions about transatlantic relations.
EU officials will propose relaxing AI and data protection rules later this week to boost competitiveness.
Discussions will also focus on developing sovereign EU cloud computing capabilities to protect European data from US-dominated services.
Promoting industry competition and creating a fair digital market are prominently included in the agenda of the summit.
Merz and Macron will deliver keynote speeches before dining with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, although the topics of discussion are undisclosed.
New digital initiatives are expected to be announced during the event.
Continuing European concerns extend beyond US dependence to also include hardware dependence on Chinese and Asian manufacturers.
The Bitcom survey shows that almost 90% of German companies importing digital goods consider themselves dependent on foreign suppliers.
Ralf Winterhorst, president of Bitcom, stressed that Europe must significantly increase digital investment to avoid technological obsolescence.
“Europe must not be left behind – investing today secures tomorrow’s competitiveness and jobs,” he told AFP.
Europe faces major challenges as computing capacity lags far behind global competitors.
The capacity of continental data centers is only 16 gigawatts, compared to the US’s 48 gigawatts and China’s 38 gigawatts.
Google’s recent German investments and the Nvidia-Deutsche Telecom AI partnership highlight its ongoing dependence on the US.
A French presidential official clarified that the summit is focused on protecting core sovereignty rather than confronting the United States or China. -AFP
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