Without its own digital capacities and autonomy, the EU will struggle to face the US and China in what has become a geopolitical technology competition. As the EU Commission today unveils its plans for the bloc’s ‚Digital Decade‘, the European Council on Foreign Relations is launching its Technology and European Power initiative based on four pillars assessing the geopolitical implications of emerging technologies for Europe and how the EU can respond to them:
- Sovereignty: On key technologies ranging from AI to cloud computing and from microchips to quantum computing, ECFR will answer how the EU must reduce its vulnerabilities and shore up its own capacities.
- Cohesion: A common understanding among EU states of the geopolitical implications of technologies is currently lacking as seen in AI strategies of member states which focus on its national applications. ECFR should share insights and develop a common appreciation for the geopolitical implications of emerging technologies and consensus on how to manage them.
- Coalitions: To ensure the future of technology is beneficial for all, a united and strategic approach pursued by like-minded liberal democracies will be key. ECFR can explore possible partners for the EU (in addition to the USA) to map areas for enhanced regulatory convergence and joint positioning on tech issues.
- Transatlantic relations: ECFR will identify ways for the EU and the new Biden administration to build a transatlantic tech agenda – ranging from digital taxation to platform regulation.
Our policy experts on tech issues are leading our new work strand and are available for quote and analysis:
- “Artificial intelligence is a rapidly advancing field that policymakers everywhere are struggling to keep up with. The next phase of European policy development in artificial intelligence should be a period of international, and specifically transatlantic, cooperation”, says our senior policy fellow Ulrike Franke who leads ECFR’s Technology and European Power initiative.
Expertise: The impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on warfare, the geopolitics of artificial intelligence;
- “In the twenty-first century, the battlefield on which the superpowers stand is digital. We are talking about a competition for world hegemony between the US and China. The great challenge for the EU is to innovate as much as the US and China do. That is where its digital sovereignty will be won or lost”, says José Ignacio Torreblanca, senior policy fellow and head of ECFR’s Madrid office.
Expertise: EU domestic politics, geopolitics of emerging technologies;
- “The EU and its member states will need to work closely with their partners in the Indo-Pacific to continue to play a leading role in the technology competition of the future. Partnering with the democracies in the region is key to building a high-trust, high-standards, more open frameworks among like-minded partners,” says Janka Oertel, director of ECFR’s Asia programme.
Expertise: EU-China relations, 5G, and emerging green technologies;
Über European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think-tank that aims to conduct cutting-edge independent research in pursuit of a coherent, effective, and values-based European foreign policy. For more details, please visit: www.ecfr.eu/about.
The European Council on Foreign Relations does not take collective positions. All publications of the European Council on Foreign Relations represent only the views of its authors.
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