Tech tightrope. Elements for a positive transatlantic agenda

How the EU can attain tech sovereignty in cooperation with the US

The United States and China dominate key areas of frontier artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, digital platforms, and the semiconductor ecosystem. As both powers turn AI into a geopolitical contest, Europe faces mounting pressure to secure its technological future while remaining economically competitive.

AI promises substantial economic gains, breakthroughs in scientific research, and advances across industries. Yet its rapid adoption also raises concerns about job displacement, societal disruption, and security risks. Stark warnings from leading industry figures about the dangers of advanced AI systems have further heightened public anxiety. European policymakers must therefore reassure citizens about these risks while demonstrating the technology’s potential benefits.

Complete technological self-sufficiency is neither realistic nor economically desirable for Europe. The strategic priority is to preserve the EU’s political and policy room for manoeuvre: the capacity to protect its interests, reduce critical dependencies, and shape technological development without undermining its own competitiveness.

This creates a difficult balancing act. The EU’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive legal framework on artificial intelligence, is now operational, providing a framework to safeguard safety and fundamental rights. Yet overly enthusiastic enforcement could widen Europe’s competitiveness gap and provoke retaliation from the US and China. Conversely, leaving AI insufficiently governed or relying excessively on foreign-developed systems could expose Europe to significant security vulnerabilities and strategic dependencies.

The EU’s choices are also shaped by its shared constitutional foundations with the US: democratic governance, the rule of law, fundamental rights, and individual liberty. Despite differences over regulation and industrial policy, this constitutional DNA makes a positive transatlantic technology agenda essential. Cooperation on AI safety, semiconductor supply chains, cybersecurity, research, and trusted digital infrastructure would help both sides strengthen resilience and competitiveness without requiring regulatory uniformity.

The EU possesses considerable leverage: through its Single Market, regulatory prowess, public procurement, competition policy, investment screening, trade measures, export controls, and financial support for critical infrastructures, the EU can strengthen bargaining power and technological resilience. Its 2026 tech sovereignty package further places semiconductors, AI, cloud computing, and open-source technologies within this strategic framework.

These instruments are powerful but not cost-free. More assertive EU policies could strengthen resilience while raising costs for European businesses, inviting coercion, fragmenting global markets, and accelerating technological decoupling.

The EU’s challenge is not simply to become more assertive. It has to be strategic about where, when, and against whom it exercises leverage. The objective should be selective technological sovereignty: reducing critical dependencies, safeguarding security and fundamental rights, and capturing AI’s economic opportunities while preserving Europe’s capacity to cooperate and compete globally with its biggest transatlantic partner.

The views and opinions contained in this analysis are those of its author only and do not necessarily represent the positions of the International Centre for Defence and Security or any other organisation.