MEPs had mixed reactions on Tuesday 18 March to the own-initiative report regarding European technological sovereignty by Sarah Knafo MEP (ESN, French) in the European Parliament’s Industry Committee.
The report, which we covered in detail on Monday 17 (see EUROPE 13601/16), recommended a number of measures to strengthen the sovereignty and security of the EU’s infrastructures in order to reduce dangerous dependence on countries such as China or the United States.
In response, a number of MEPs from the ‘progressive bloc’ (EPP, Renew Europe and Social Democrats) are drafting a more comprehensive and complex ‘counter-report’, which will cover related issues ranging from undersea cable safety to the reduction of white zones (see EUROPE 13601/16).
At the ITRE Committee meeting, reactions to Sarah Knafo’s report were therefore mixed.
Without denying the crucial importance of such a report, which was described as an “excellent starting point” by Francesco Torselli (ECR, Italian), several MEPs, notably from the centre and the left, criticised specific parts of its content.
Michał Kobosko (Renew Europe, Polish) asked: “Does this report really ask the right questions and raise the right issues? There is no mention of spectrum, undersea cables or technology deployment. What we have here is more a text that praises certain measures taken by the Trump administration and criticises European initiatives”, he argued.
The Polish MEP then called for a broader report to be drawn up, taking into account “connectivity, satellites, cooperative ecosystems, semi-conductors, quantum research, the Cloud”... in other words, everything that is included in the working version of the ‘counter-report that is currently being prepared.
The S&D group plans to propose amendments on “public contracts, the definition of public digital infrastructure”, simplification – which must not be confused with “liberalisation, which can jeopardise the rights of Europeans” – and “investments in digital technology”.
The deadline for tabling amendments is Thursday 20 March. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)