BrusselsThe administration of Donald Trump has an obsession against regulation in the digital sector of the European Union. Since he returned to the White House, he insists that he sees it as a direct attack on the big American technologies, which are making gold in the EU market, and he demands that the European leaders lower the regulations on competition and transparency that affect these big companies. Despite the fact that in other fields the European bloc has yielded, such as in the military or the commercial, in this it keeps the pulse in Washington and has refused to lower its head, which has infuriated the New York tycoon and caused the tension between the two powers to escalate again.
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The US president even threatened to restart the tariff war against any allies that, like the European Union, regulate the digital sector and apply fines to tech giants that break the law. In the same vein, the authorities in charge such as Commerce of the White House, who participated in the last EU Finance Council, conditioned the reduction of tariffs to a deregulation of companies such as Google, Meta, Apple or Microsoft.
However, the European Union has always refused to give in in this regard and, for example, the vice-president and head of Competitiveness of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, has warned on more than one occasion that they do not intend to accept the “blackmail” of the American power. Without going any further, last week, Brussels opened an investigation into WhatsApp about its artificial intelligence services and fined the social network X, owned by tycoon Elon Musk – a former collaborator of the Trump administration – with 120 million euros, for lack of transparency and disinformation.
The penalty opened the box of thrones. The owner of Tesla has devoted dozens of tweets to insulting the EU and has gone so far as to accuse the European Commission of being a Nazi, although it is Musk himself who supports the far-right Alternative for Germany party and gave the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration. Although with a very different tone, the rest of the owners of the big American technologies, especially Mark Zuckerberg, also often criticize the European Commission and always put pressure on the White House to force the European club to deregulate the digital sector.
Beyond Musk, who is usually unscrupulous against the existence of the European Union, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also reacted to the fine against X, who considered it “an attack on the American people” and described it as an act of “censorship”. And, this morning, Trump described the Brussels sanction against X as “disgusting” and took the opportunity to charge back against the community bloc. He has even insulted its leaders and called them “weak” and “too politically correct”. “Europe is in decline,” the president of the United States emphasized in an interview with Politico.
The EU is not backing down
The European Commission says it does not want to get into a fight with the president of the United States and escalate the tension with what has been its main ally since the end of the Second World War. “Not responding is a way of responding,” the spokeswoman for the community executive, Paula Pinho, limited herself to saying at the daily press conference. Thus, Brussels denies that the opening of the investigation against Google that Brussels announced this Tuesday morning in the early hours is a response to the words of Trump, Rubio or Musk, and they ensure that the community authorities are limited to applying European regulations, regardless of the time or the sensitivity of the case.
However, the European Commission’s gesture is a declaration of intent and cannot be separated from the context of tension between the transatlantic allies. The announcement has come a few hours after the US president’s new attack on the EU and contrasts with other moves against the big American technologies that the European Commission has carried out in recent times. For example, last September, in full negotiations between Brussels and Washington on the fringes of the trade agreement, the EU executive delayed the presentation of a fine against Google of almost 3 billion euros to prevent the discussions from blowing up, and finally presented it on a Friday afternoon – a time when there is less media attention – and without a subsequent press conference, which is very unusual in the application of economic sanctions of this kind magnitude
In this way, although it has lowered its head in military matters and trade relations, the European Union remains firm in the application of community legislation in the digital sector against American companies, even the day after Trump’s insults. More and more European leaders are raising their voices – even if it is with a small mouth – against the Trump administration’s attacks on the European Union. First it was the Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who reminded the US who was its main ally “if nothing had changed”, and a whole string of ministers and diplomats from other member states, such as France or Italy. The leaders of all the main parliamentary groups in the Eurochamber have also come out to stop him, except for the far-right ones, which are precisely the ones that Trump’s security plan aims to promote in order to avoid “the disappearance of European civilization”.
This Tuesday, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has also defended the EU and specifically the role of the European Commission to ensure compliance with digital regulations. “It is the legal framework of Europe and it is valid for all companies, without restrictions and in the same way for everyone”, stated the leader of the main country of the European bloc. In the same vein, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, has for the first time raised the tone against American power and, in an appearance at the European Parliament, accused the Trump administration of wanting to “provoke” European leaders, and warned him that the European Union is already working to “free itself from the dependencies” they have with the United States.
