French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet with traders through the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty on November 18, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. Photo: AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday native time through the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty in Berlin, Germany that Europe that should keep away from becoming a tech “vassal” of the US and China, urging a “European preference,” as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz echoed calls on the similar occasion for the bloc to safe its digital future and cut back dependence on international tech powers, France 24, AFP and Reuters reported.
Some Chinese observers reached by the Global Times on Wednesday maintain a cautiously optimistic view of the brand new spherical of European marketing campaign to construct up expertise competitiveness, whereas declaring that the shortage of concrete steps, comparatively restricted budgets for primary analysis and different understanding of autonomy amongst bloc members are main obstacles to turning slogans into precise outcomes.
“Europe doesn’t want to be the client of the big entrepreneurs or the big solutions being provided either from the US or from China. We clearly want to design our own solutions,” Macron informed a Berlin summit, including that this stance represented “a refusal of being a vassal,” in accordance with France 24 .
The French president made the remarks on the European Summit on Digital Sovereignty, which, per the report, introduced collectively tech leaders and ministers from throughout the continent, together with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Macron stated he strongly believed that “European preference” ought to be the tenet, whereas arguing that Chinese have their very own exclusivity and the Americans have a powerful American choice.
He additionally underlined the stakes for Europe in having extra autonomy within the tech sector. “You cannot dedicate the strength of your economy to the ‘Magnificent Seven’,” he stated, referring to US tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.
The most determined anxiousness for Europe additionally stems from the truth that its core structure is deeply bolted to US expertise, with no unbiased search engine or working system of its personal. “It has become just an application layer sitting on top of someone else’s stack,” Wang Yiwei, a professor of the School of International Studies on the Renmin University of China, who simply visited Brussels to attend the13th China-Europe Forum, informed the Global Times on Wednesday.
Compared with the US and China, the EU has been lagging behind in phrases of funding in analysis and growth (R&D). Moreover, even with extra money allotted to R&D, the bloc’s regulatory rigidity has turn into a straitjacket on Europe’s modern capability, Zhao Junjie, a senior analysis fellow on the Institute of European Studies on the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, informed the Global Times on Wednesday.
According to media experiences, the EU solely invests about 2.2 % of the bloc’s GDP in R&D, decrease than the US and China, which stands at round 3.5 % and a couple of.65 % respectively.
The French president additionally wrote in a put up on X on Wednesday that “simplify our rules to unleash innovation, innovate more, protect our data, assert a European preference, and ensure fair competition against American and Chinese giants: this is our roadmap.”
In the identical put up, he stated that “a market of 450 million consumers, a unique scientific and technological ecosystem, and a strengthened Franco-German convergence: all of this is translating today into more than 12 billion euros of investments by our private players in our key technologies.”
Merz additionally stated on the digital summit in Berlin on Tuesday that “the tectonic shifts we are currently witnessing in the world, in the political and economic centers of power, demand swift action in the digital sphere.”
While noting that the US and China, two digital superpowers, are vying for technological management, Merz burdened that “Europe must not cede this field to them.”
“Among EU member states, there are sharply divergent interpretations of ‘strategic autonomy,’ coupled with significant disparities in execution capability and efficiency. This makes it extremely difficult to generate unified momentum. As a result, the EU struggles to develop technology, particularly in high-risk, high-reward frontier fields—in the same decisive and coordinated manner as fully sovereign nations such as China and the US,” Zhao elaborated.
The EU will suggest rolling again guidelines on AI and knowledge safety later this week, a subject that’s anticipated to function prominently on the summit, in accordance with the report.
A senior official from the French presidency, who was not named within the report, clarified that the summit was not about “confrontation” with the US and even China. Rather, it’s about “how we protect our core sovereignty and what rules need to be established, especially at the European level”, the official stated.
Europe’s anxiousness about technological competitors with China and the US is nothing new.
“We in Europe must not allow the US and China to decide the technological future on their own.” On October 29, Merz used this line as his opening comment to announce the official launch of the “German High-Tech Agenda” in Berlin.
On October 4, the British Financial Times revealed an article titled “EU pushes new AI strategy to reduce tech reliance on US and China”, which stated that “the EU should promote homegrown synthetic intelligence platforms and reduce its reliance on international suppliers, Brussels has stated, because it prepares to set out a brand new plan to compete against the US and China within the world race for the revolutionary expertise.
The Irish Times reported on November 13 that Mike Fries, CEO of the multinational telecom group Liberty Global, lashed out on the EU, saying that the bloc has had its foot on the business’s neck for 20 years, and accused Brussels of doing nothing to implement suggestions made by former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi to enhance its competitiveness.
In September this 12 months, Deutsche Bank launched a analysis report stating that, as of September 4, solely 11.2 % of the suggestions has been totally applied, Business Insider reported. Europe’s massive comeback plan to shut the innovation hole with the US and China is struggling to take off, the report stated.
Ambassador Cai Run, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, stated on the thirteenth China-Europe Forum that China is prepared to work with the EU to improve China-EU financial and commerce cooperation, consolidate and deepen cooperation in conventional areas akin to commerce and funding, actively broaden cooperation in rising fields akin to synthetic intelligence, the digital economic system, and inexperienced growth, and obtain extra outcomes, in accordance with the Chinese Foreign Ministry web site on November 13.