Europe faces mounting pressure from the United States to dismantle its groundbreaking online safety legislation, according to former European Commissioner Thierry Breton. In a stark warning, Breton emphasised that the European Union cannot afford to become "useful idiots" in the global digital power struggle.
The Battle for Digital Sovereignty
European decision-makers are gathering in Berlin at the invitation of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron to address this critical challenge. With individuals spending four to five hours daily online through smartphones and various devices, controlling how digital spaces are organised, structured, and regulated has become essential for European sovereignty.
Between 2022 and 2024, the EU established what Breton describes as "the most advanced digital legal framework in the world" through four key pieces of legislation:
- The Digital Services Act
- The Digital Markets Act
- The Data Act
- The AI Act
These laws were adopted by an overwhelming majority of MEPs and unanimously by all member states, creating what Breton calls "the common foundation protecting our children, citizens, businesses and democracies from all kinds of abuses in the information space."
Competing Digital Empires
Breton identifies four major state-controlled digital empires advancing competing visions of the information space:
The United States operates an ultra-liberal model where private actors like Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft dominate cyberspace with minimal oversight, seeking to impose their standards and worldview.
China has chosen the opposite path of control and closure, relying on mass surveillance and defending local norms through national champions including Huawei, ByteDance and Alibaba, with the state steering everything as a political and commercial lever.
Russia treats cyberspace as an extension of its territory, imposing strict content control while using information warfare campaigns to destabilise democracies and advance geopolitical aims.
Faced with these competing models, the EU has charted its own course based on the strength of its 450-million-citizen internal market and core democratic values.
Protecting Europe's Digital Future
Breton insists Europe must immediately apply its digital laws without fear of displeasing trading partners, noting that neither the US nor China refrains from enforcing their own laws to please others. This represents the first expression of European digital sovereignty.
The former commissioner warns against attempts to unravel these laws through "omnibus" bills or other means so soon after their implementation. "No one is fooled over the transatlantic origin of these attempts," he states, urging Europe not to be intimidated by arguments about simplification or alleged "anti-innovation" bias.
Protecting the integrity of Europe's digital legal pillars constitutes the second expression of digital sovereignty, while the third involves resisting external pressure and asserting the strength of sovereign infrastructure, freeing Europe from external jurisdictions like the US Patriot Act and Cloud Act governing European data.
To achieve lasting digital sovereignty, Breton advocates for:
- Massive investment in research and critical infrastructure
- Support for European ecosystems across the value chain
- Training and attracting top-tier digital experts
- Fostering industry champions through startup funding
- Developing a genuine single capital market
"Sovereignty is not bought, it is built," Breton concludes, emphasising that only through coordinated action, ambitious regulation, and significant investment can Europe assert credible and lasting digital sovereignty in the face of global tech empires.
