They should definitely keep a safe distance from the dumpster fire the US is now, but the EU still very much needs the US: America has the command and intel structure needed to deter and maybe even fight back Russia, almost all governments work with American tech (Windows, Office, iPhones, AWS and cyber security tech like from Crowd strike), financial systems are based on us techs and the big corpos are very intertwined, also big law firms operate on both sides of the Atlantic, same goes for (social) media. European governments just can’t switch to a different brand of coke like individual consumers do. Same goes for china, they basically produce everything more complex than a patato and if it’s made in Vietnam or Cambodja or whatever, China might still be involved.
Long story short, EU can’t pick a side and sit out the storm. If things went different I totally would have seen EU siding with their American ally, but that bridge has obviously been burned.
Can definitely recommend reading the article if you want to better understand why the US will not be able to ‘win over’ the EU. It’s a good read.
US products don’t dominate the information technology sector because they are inherently better than alternatives. They dominate because the US is the 800 pound gorilla and it’s just easier to use the defaults the US churns out. Every time a government uses proprietary technology, especially for anything that citizens/residents have to interact with, they give up a bit of their sovereignty. People and businesses that interact with the government shouldn’t be compelled to buy particular products from a foreign company just to interact with their government. I think Europe would be wise to move to open standards as much as possible, and start rolling a lot of their own technology. No, it’s not the easiest choice for the next quarter, or next year, but it will serve them well in the long term. The US is just too volatile.
Canada is definitely ditching the US, why shouldn’t Europe. As an American who will b negatively impacted, I can’t help but still encourage it.
They should definitely keep a safe distance from the dumpster fire the US is now, but the EU still very much needs the US: America has the command and intel structure needed to deter and maybe even fight back Russia, almost all governments work with American tech (Windows, Office, iPhones, AWS and cyber security tech like from Crowd strike), financial systems are based on us techs and the big corpos are very intertwined, also big law firms operate on both sides of the Atlantic, same goes for (social) media. European governments just can’t switch to a different brand of coke like individual consumers do. Same goes for china, they basically produce everything more complex than a patato and if it’s made in Vietnam or Cambodja or whatever, China might still be involved.
Long story short, EU can’t pick a side and sit out the storm. If things went different I totally would have seen EU siding with their American ally, but that bridge has obviously been burned.
Can definitely recommend reading the article if you want to better understand why the US will not be able to ‘win over’ the EU. It’s a good read.
US products don’t dominate the information technology sector because they are inherently better than alternatives. They dominate because the US is the 800 pound gorilla and it’s just easier to use the defaults the US churns out. Every time a government uses proprietary technology, especially for anything that citizens/residents have to interact with, they give up a bit of their sovereignty. People and businesses that interact with the government shouldn’t be compelled to buy particular products from a foreign company just to interact with their government. I think Europe would be wise to move to open standards as much as possible, and start rolling a lot of their own technology. No, it’s not the easiest choice for the next quarter, or next year, but it will serve them well in the long term. The US is just too volatile.