European defense giants urge the EC to promote the continent’s technological independence from the US.

Around 100 European companies and lobby groups, including defense giants Airbus and Dassault, issued a joint letter calling on the European Commission to take measures to stimulate the development of technologies produced in Europe in order to become less dependent on the US, with which the EU is currently embroiled in a trade confrontation. The letter was also signed by French state investment bank Bpifrance, Scaleway, OVHCloud, France Digital and others.

The authors believe that requiring governments to buy European products will increase demand for domestic technologies, and a sovereign infrastructure fund should support investment in more capital-intensive industries, in particular microchips and quantum technologies.

Against the backdrop of deteriorating relations with the US, the EU’s industrial base is exposed to significant risk, as Europe is very dependent on American technologies. European data is mostly stored in US cloud services, and Amazon, Microsoft, and Google account for more than 66% of the European market. The continent accounts for only 10% of the global microchip market.

The authors noted that the EC should mobilize domestic industry to provide Europe with its technological needs.