Europe’s Cloudy Judgment
Europe wants to become an AI continent. Fair enough. But it will not get there by turning the cloud into a customs checkpoint.
The European Commission’s new European technological-sovereignty package deserves close attention in Washington, Brussels, and boardrooms on both sides of the Atlantic. Announced June 3, the package aims to strengthen Europe’s capacity in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, open source, and digitized energy infrastructure.
Those are worthy goals. Europe is right to care about resilience, cybersecurity, and whether its firms and public institutions can use advanced digital tools securely. But good objectives do not rescue bad instruments.
For present purposes, the centerpiece is the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act, or CADA. The Commission says CADA would support cloud and AI research, speed data-center deployment, and create a single EU framework to assess cloud and AI “sovereignty.” The ambition is no small thing: Europe wants to at least triple data-center capacity within five to seven years, expand cloud and AI adoption in public and strategic sectors, and reduce reliance on non-EU providers.
The package also includes Chips Act 2.0, an open-source strategy, and an energy-sector digitization roadmap.
These initiatives should be evaluated as proposals, not faits accomplis. CADA and Chips Act 2.0 still must proceed through the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure, with the European Parliament and Council acting as co-legislators. That means amendments, political bargaining, and, ultimately, either a more balanced transatlantic approach or a more deeply protectionist one.
The coming consultation and legislative process therefore matter. This is precisely the stage at which economically grounded criticism can do the most good.