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Can the EU finally stand up to the US administration and American tech giants? The current passivity goes beyond a regulatory or economic shortcoming: it constitutes a moral collapse. This inaction throws into question the core principles of the EU's democratic identity. What is at stake is not merely the future of companies like Google or Meta, but the fundamental idea that Europe has the right to govern its own digital space according to its own laws.

Background Context

To begin, consider how we got here. In late July, the European Commission agreed to a one-sided agreement with the US that established a permanent 15% tax on European goods to the US. Europe gained no concessions in return. The indignity was compounded because the EU also consented to provide more than $1tn to the US through financial commitments and purchases of resources and defense equipment. This arrangement revealed the fragility of Europe's dependence on the US.

Soon after, the US administration warned of crushing additional taxes if Europe implemented its regulations against American companies on its own territory.

The Gap Between Rhetoric and Action

Over many years Brussels has asserted that its market of 450 million rich people gives it unanswerable sway in international commerce. But in the month and a half since the US warning, Europe has done little. Not a single counter-action has been implemented. No activation of the new trade defense tool, the often described “trade bazooka” that the EU once vowed would be its ultimate protection against external coercion.

By contrast, we have polite statements and a fine on Google of less than 1% of its yearly income for established market abuses, previously established in American legal proceedings, that enabled it to “exploit” its dominant position in the EU's advertising market.

US Intentions

The US, under the current administration, 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 Department of State's website, written in paranoid, bombastic rhetoric similar to Viktor Orbán's speeches, charged Europe of “an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself”. It criticized alleged restrictions on political groups across the EU, from the AfD in Germany to Polish organizations.

Available Tools for Response

What is to be done? The EU's anti-coercion instrument functions through calculating the degree of the pressure and imposing retaliatory measures. If EU member states agree, the European Commission could kick US goods and services out of Europe's market, or impose tariffs on them. It can remove their patents and copyrights, block their financial activities and require reparations as a requirement of re-entry to Europe's market.

The tool is not merely financial response; it is a statement of determination. It was created to signal that the EU would never tolerate external pressure. But now, when it is most crucial, it remains inactive. It is not the powerful weapon promised. It is a symbolic object.

Political Divisions

In the months leading to the EU-US trade deal, several EU states talked tough in public, but did not advocate the mechanism to be activated. Some nations, including Ireland and Italy, openly advocated more conciliatory approach.

Compromise is the worst option that the EU needs. It must enforce its laws, even when they are inconvenient. Along with the trade tool, the EU should disable social media “recommended”-style systems, that recommend material the user has not requested, on European soil until they are proven safe for democracy.

Broader Digital Strategy

Citizens – not the algorithms of international billionaires beholden to foreign interests – should have the autonomy to decide for themselves about what they view and share online.

The US administration is putting Europe under pressure to weaken its online regulations. But now more than ever, Europe should make American technology companies accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. EU authorities must hold certain member states accountable for failing to enforce EU digital rules on American companies.

Regulatory action is insufficient, however. The EU must gradually substitute all foreign “big tech” services and cloud services over the next decade with European solutions.

Risks of Delay

The real danger of the current situation is that if the EU does not act now, it will become permanently passive. The longer it waits, the more profound the erosion of its confidence in itself. The increasing acceptance that resistance is futile. The more it will accept that its laws are not binding, its governmental bodies not sovereign, its political system dependent.

When that occurs, the route to authoritarianism becomes unavoidable, through automated influence on social media and the acceptance of lies. If Europe continues to remain passive, it will be drawn into that same decline. The EU must act now, not just to resist Trump, but to establish conditions for itself to function as a free and sovereign entity.

International Perspective

And in doing so, it must plant a flag that the international community can see. In North America, South Korea and East Asia, democratic nations are observing. They are questioning if the EU, the last bastion of international cooperation, will resist foreign pressure or yield to it.

They are asking whether representative governments can survive when the leading democratic nation in the world turns its back on them. They also see the model of Brazilian leadership, who confronted US pressure and showed that the way to deal with a aggressor is to respond firmly.

But if the EU hesitates, if it continues to issue polite statements, to impose symbolic penalties, to anticipate a improved situation, it will have already lost.