Steps to rapidly harness Europe's legal toolkit against Tech challenges published by CDU Party think tank
19 November 2024 (update: 20 November)
Today, after extensive consultation with senior European Commission officials and stakeholders, we have recommended actions to President Ursula von der Leyen to rapidly deliver her competitiveness and security agenda, and protect rights.
Our recommendations are published today by President von der Leyen's own CDU Party's think tank, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. They are practical steps to harness Europe's legal toolkit.
See the paper and our accompanying letter to President von der Leyen below. Authors are Dr Johnny Ryan, Dr Pencho Kuzev, and Felix Kartte. See also our related opinion piece in Tagesspiegel Background this morning.
Key insights
- Very large non-EU technology firms dominate our market by breaking our law.
- For Europe’s SMEs and startups to scale up, it is not enough to invest in our infrastructure and innovation. We must clear space in the market for SMEs and startups to grow, so that they are not snuffed out by giant non-EU technology firms that refuse to respect European law.
- We propose a Taskforce of Chief Enforcement Officers for a whole-of-Commission approach to coherently use diverse enforcement tools (under DSA, DMA, GDPR, NIS 2, etc.) for strategic objectives, without the need to further legislate.
- Enforcing EU law against giant non-EU firms is essential for the competitiveness agenda. It will also protect children, our elections, and Member States’ security.
- The GDPR has an important role to play in competitiveness. Full and proportionate enforcement against giant non-EU firms in Ireland and Luxembourg that misuse Europeans’ data will create space in all Member States for Europe’s SMEs and startups to scale up.
Dr Johnny Ryan, Enforce Director, said:
"Big Tech dominates Europe, stifling our businesses, harming our children, and undermining our security. Vice President designate Vance threatens to strangle NATO if Europe enforces against Musk.
But Ursula von der Leyen can easily signal to Beijing and Washington that Europe’s rules must be obeyed in Europe’s market. A credible signal would be to close the gaps between legal instruments and marshal all of Europe’s diverse tools under political leadership.
Even the most cavalier big tech CEO or foreign leader will recognise that Europe must be taken seriously when it is acts with unity."
Enforce wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to present the paper:
Dr Ursula von der Leyen
President, European Commission
cc
Björn Seibert
19 November 2024
Competitiveness & resilience
Dear President von der Leyen,
We commend your commitment to revitalise Europe’s competitiveness and protect our democracy. To aid you, we propose in a paper published by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung today a way to help Europe’s businesses, SMEs and startups to rapidly grow in scale, reduce market fragmentation, and protect Europe’s fundamental rights and freedoms.[1] This follows extensive consultation across the Commission and with stakeholders.
In the attached Konrad Adenauer paper we recommend two actions to rapidly deliver your Political Guidelines on digital competitiveness and security:
- A non-legislative measure to rapidly streamline relevant legal tools; and
- A means of creating the necessary space in the market for Europe’s SMEs and startups to scale, ensuring investment in innovation & infrastructure is effective.
Allow me to take the opportunity to congratulate you on your election to a second term as President, and extend to you our best wishes for your second mandate.
We are at your cabinet’s disposal to discuss the detail.
Sincerely,
