The Trump administration’s foreign policies toward Europe, including tariffs and talks of taking over Greenland, have helped fuel calls among European leaders for greater independence from U.S.-based technology.
But military officials are warning the continent is already too dependent on American firms to cut ties overnight, the Financial Times reports.
“It’s not realistic or helpful,” an unnamed European military official told the FT about tech sovereignty talks.
“Most of our European platforms are relying on American back-end . . . so it’s very difficult to see anything happening in the short-term. It’s just not possible,” the official said.
European militaries rely heavily on U.S. systems and infrastructure for everything from satellite and command-and-control networks to secure communications, intelligence gathering, and data storage. Military officials argue that potential laws that restrict the use of American technology could inadvertently weaken the continent’s security, according to the newspaper.
Such laws could create capability gaps, fragment military operations and cybersecurity, and weaken intelligence-gathering efforts.
Still, a growing number of European politicians are pushing for laws that strengthen homegrown technology and reduce reliance on U.S. providers.
“In this new geopolitical environment, Europe has to become a geopolitical power,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. “It’s ongoing, but we have to accelerate and clearly deliver all the components of a geopolitical power, in defence, in technology, and in the derisking vis-à-vis all the big powers in order to be much more independent.”
The push is already producing concrete policy changes. Just last month, the French government announced it would stop using American video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and instead use the French platform Visio.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a similar message during her speech at the conference, calling on Europe to become more independent in all fields, including defense, energy, the economy, and digital technology.
The European Commission is reportedly working on legislation aimed at promoting tech sovereignty across the bloc.
The push is driven by concerns that the Trump administration could theoretically disable critical tech systems with a “digital kill switch” that would make highly-connected weapon systems or infrastructure unusable. Others see the effort as leverage in ongoing trade tensions with Washington.
The United States, for its part, is attempting to frame China as the real technological threat.
United States National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross told an audience in Munich that the idea of a U.S.-controlled “kill switch” is not a “credible argument,” according to Politico.
“There is a clean tech stack. It is primarily American. And then there is a Chinese tech stack,” Cairncross said.
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