I think the politics can be sorted if they have even just a bit of vision. This has support from industry and CSOs and unions and academia and many citizens — and even some sovereignists. But they'll never get traction by waffling.
Replies
Agree the problem is part a lack of vision. On that score Eurostack plans help, but is barebones and missing much. It does not take account of two major drivers of US digital power. Network effects/ economies of scale, capital markets and how they create an ecosystem. 1/
aug 27, 2025, 5:02 am • 2 0 • view
Eurostack talks about federation and open source a lot. Yes. It can play a role in parts of the stack (particularly back end). But centralised propriety European champions would most probably have to be part of the mix, also for capital markets to do their part. 2/
aug 27, 2025, 5:02 am • 0 0 • view
Both innovation and capital markets tend to cluster in specific geographies. But European member states jealously guard what they have and fight any such clustering elsewhere. Fragmentation is the perennial European problem. Part of the problem is then choosing to be European first. Very hard 3/
aug 27, 2025, 5:02 am • 1 0 • view
Are you referring to a specific Eurostack report? One of them is very focused on open source but the others are more about infrastructure. But either way I don't think that those reports should be detailed. The details should come from verticals, primarily.
aug 27, 2025, 8:00 am • 1 0 • view
Agree plans should not be too detailed. But certain things must be addressed that are not at present, even in a basic form. First and foremost is political union, and the things that absolutely depend on that: enforceable regulation and capital markets.
aug 27, 2025, 8:08 am • 1 0 • view
> Fragmentation is the perennial European problem But this is also why a solution would be worthwhile news. We need rent-extracting European bigtech monopolies as much as we need the US or Chinese variants.
aug 27, 2025, 8:26 am • 2 0 • view
I also think that fragmentation is overstated as an issue. It's certainly true that greater integration would help a lot with some things, but when I talk to the people building digital infra in India, they have to deal with a fragmented space too and it hasn't stopped them.
aug 27, 2025, 10:16 am • 1 0 • view
Not sure I agree. The Indian state is largely centralised. It does not care where software development takes place or where it is financed. So India’s economy is heavily clustered, with distinct city-regions specialising by sector. It does not have legally distinct codes for bankruptcy etc. (cont)
aug 27, 2025, 11:23 am • 1 0 • view
That matters because financial instruments don't mean the same thing across the EU. It matters in other ways. European industry would benefit from moving towards and into Spain, and North because of solar and wind costs. Germany will be dead set against that. It matters to EU banks too. Etc.
aug 27, 2025, 11:26 am • 0 1 • view
Didn't this guy @mmasnick.bsky.social say "protocols, not platforms" 🤓. While probably not equally applicable to all parts of the stack, its a powerful idea for overcoming the limitations of what is actually a desirable aspect of the European landscape (strength in diversity etc.)
aug 27, 2025, 10:53 am • 0 0 • view
He is wrong on that IMHO.
aug 27, 2025, 11:15 am • 0 0 • view
I really don't think he is. I would say it's an incomplete position (not because Mike's wrong but because you can't fit a whole book in a single article). It's not just any protocols and not just with any architectural properties. Some protocols are easier to capture and harder to govern.
aug 27, 2025, 12:46 pm • 1 0 • view
But a protocol like AT has the right kind of properties (in a way that AP does not) to create unbundled governance and to support democratic systems. You also need infrastructure and funding. But protocols are key to eliminating chokepoints and integrating unbundled governance.
aug 27, 2025, 12:46 pm • 2 0 • view
Are we not importing an American habit of thought that elevates code over law? Law is the tool of messy politics (in all its disorder), which ironically both crypto libertarians and the American left seek to bypass with technological fixes.
aug 27, 2025, 2:53 pm • 0 0 • view
When I look into the EU proposals here I always bounce off the part where the process seems to have been captured by SAP as the default example of “we have a technology industry at home”
aug 27, 2025, 1:02 pm • 3 0 • view
And basically all of the tech industrial strategy out of the EC is "let's make another SAP!"
aug 27, 2025, 3:01 pm • 2 0 • view
aug 27, 2025, 4:28 pm • 1 0 • view