The legislative package on technological sovereignty presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 3 June, which aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on suppliers and third countries in critical sectors such as semiconductors, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 13880/1), has elicited contrasting reactions from the political groups in the European Parliament, as well as from the various stakeholders.
The EPP, S&D and Greens/EFA groups questioned the four-level sovereignty risk assessment system proposed by the Commission, arguing that it could lead to divergent approaches between Member States. For their part, The Left and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) groups claimed that the package did not go far enough. The S&D and Greens/EFA groups also criticised the postponement of the Commission’s proposal to assess the environmental footprint of data centres, which ESN felt did not go far enough.
“I would have liked to have heard more clearly from the Commission that the United States is no longer a trusted partner for the European public sector, just as China is not”, said Aura Salla (EPP, Finnish), while welcoming the “laudable” objective of the package. She also questioned the current validity of the data transfer agreement between the European Union and the United States.
“The security of the data will be assessed by the Member States. Wouldn’t this risk creating a situation where different rules would apply in different Member States?”, asked Jörgen Warborn (EPP, Swedish).
Elena Sancho Murillo (S&D, Spanish) also asked: “How can we avoid inconsistencies between national assessments?” She questioned the real capacity of this system to reduce addiction and called for “real incentives” to be put in place to enable the European industry to gain significant market share.
The S&D and Greens/EFA groups criticised as well the Commission for delaying its proposal on assessing the environmental footprint of data centres. “This package on technological sovereignty lacks a rating system. Where are the sustainability requirements for data centres?”, questioned Nicolás González Casares (S&D, Spanish).
Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, German) welcomed “the general approach of the package”, but regretted “the disappearance of the energy assessment mechanism”. He also warned against a “current trend towards renationalisation”, stressing that risk assessments would be carried out by the Member States, “and not according to a common European vision”.
Per Clausen MEP (The Left, Danish) called for “a clear action plan” to achieve the objective of “replacing American or other foreign technologies” with European ones. The package “does not yet go far enough”, said Sarah Knafo (French) on behalf of the Europe of Sovereign Nations group. (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)