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Will the EU finally stand up to the US administration and US big tech? The current inaction is not just a regulatory or financial failure: it represents a moral failure. This situation throws into question the core principles of Europe's political sovereignty. The central issue is not merely the fate of firms such as Google or Meta, but the fundamental idea that the European Union has the authority to govern its own digital space according to its own regulations.

Background Context

First, it's important to review how we got here. In late July, the European Commission agreed to a one-sided deal with the US that established a permanent 15% tariff on EU exports to the US. Europe gained no concessions in return. The indignity was compounded because the EU also agreed to direct more than $1tn to the US through financial commitments and purchases of resources and military materiel. The deal revealed the fragility of the EU's dependence on the US.

Soon after, Trump threatened crushing additional taxes if the EU enforced its laws against US tech firms on its own territory.

The Gap Between Rhetoric and Action

Over many years EU officials has claimed that its market of 450 million affluent people gives it unanswerable sway in trade negotiations. But in the six weeks since Trump's threat, Europe has done little. Not a single retaliatory measure has been implemented. No activation of the new anti-coercion instrument, the so-called “trade bazooka” that Brussels once promised would be its ultimate shield against external coercion.

Instead, we have polite statements and a penalty on Google of under 1% of its annual revenue for longstanding anticompetitive behaviour, previously established in American legal proceedings, that allowed it to “exploit” its market leadership in the EU's digital ad space.

US Intentions

The US, under Trump's leadership, has made its intentions clear: it no longer seeks to support European democracy. It seeks to undermine it. A recent essay released on the US State Department platform, composed in paranoid, bombastic language reminiscent of Hungarian leadership, accused the EU of “an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself”. It condemned alleged limitations on authoritarian parties across the EU, from the AfD in Germany to PiS in Poland.

Available Tools for Response

What is to be done? The EU's trade defense mechanism functions through calculating the degree of the coercion and applying counter-actions. If EU member states agree, the European Commission could kick US products out of Europe's market, or apply taxes on them. It can strip their patents and copyrights, prevent their financial activities and demand reparations as a condition of re-entry to Europe's market.

The tool is not only economic retaliation; it is a declaration of determination. It was designed to demonstrate that the EU would always resist foreign coercion. But now, when it is needed most, it lies unused. It is not a bazooka. It is a symbolic object.

Internal Disagreements

In the months leading to the transatlantic agreement, several EU states talked tough in official statements, but failed to push for the mechanism to be used. Others, such as Ireland and Italy, publicly pushed for a softer European line.

A softer line is the last thing that Europe needs. It must implement its laws, even when they are inconvenient. Along with the anti-coercion instrument, the EU should disable social media “for you”-style systems, that suggest material the user has not requested, on European soil until they are demonstrated to be secure for democracy.

Broader Digital Strategy

The public – not the automated systems of foreign oligarchs beholden to foreign interests – should have the autonomy to make independent choices about what they see and share online.

The US administration is putting Europe under pressure to weaken its digital rulebook. But now more than ever, the EU should hold American technology companies responsible for distorting competition, surveillance practices, and preying on our children. EU authorities must hold Ireland accountable for failing to enforce Europe's online regulations on US firms.

Enforcement is not enough, however. Europe must gradually substitute all non-EU “big tech” services and cloud services over the next decade with European solutions.

Risks of Delay

The significant risk of this moment is that if the EU does not take immediate action, it will never act again. The more delay occurs, the deeper the decline of its confidence in itself. The increasing acceptance that opposition is pointless. The greater the tendency that its laws are not binding, its institutions lacking autonomy, its democracy dependent.

When that occurs, the path to authoritarianism becomes inevitable, through algorithmic manipulation on social media and the acceptance of misinformation. If the EU continues to cower, it will be pulled toward that same decline. The EU must take immediate steps, not just to resist US pressure, but to create space for itself to exist as a free and sovereign entity.

Global Implications

And in doing so, it must make a statement that the rest of the world can see. In Canada, Asia and Japan, democracies are observing. They are questioning if the EU, the last bastion of liberal multilateralism, will resist external influence or surrender to it.

They are inquiring whether representative governments can endure when the leading democratic nation in the world abandons them. They also see the example of Brazilian leadership, who confronted Trump and showed that the way to deal with a bully is to hit hard.

But if the EU delays, if it continues to release polite statements, to levy symbolic penalties, to hope for a improved situation, it will have already lost.