The European Commission has just released a major strategy on technological sovereignty, and it’s placing open source software squarely in the spotlight. The message is clear: open source is key to true digital independence.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/50155510

The EU is betting big on cloud computing and chips to reduce its technological dependence on the US and China, and to re-enter the global tech race. But whether it will succeed and how the two superpowers will react remain open questions.

The European Commission has presented a sweeping tech sovereignty package to boost homegrown technologies and reduce dependency on American and Chinese companies. Whether it will make a meaningful difference — and how the two superpowers will react — remain open questions.

"We live in a world where geopolitics and technology are inseparable. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this," European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said.

The package seeks to boost Europe's domestic tech sector, with a heavy focus on cloud infrastructure, AI services, open source and chips.

The EU imports most of its tech services and products from abroad. The digital market is dominated by US giants such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, and Chinese conglomerates such as Alibaba and TikTok-owner ByteDance.

In his landmark report on the languishing state of the European economy, former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi argued that most of the recent divergence in GDP growth between the EU and the US could be explained by digital technologies.

Having missed the first wave of the digital economy — the internet-driven services boom — Draghi warned that Europe's last chance to rejoin the international tech race was not to be missed, namely the transformative potential of artificial intelligence.

While growing dependency on foreign technologies had been widely known among European decision-makers for decades, US President Donald Trump's assertive trade agenda and China's willingness to weaponise such dependencies have provided fresh momentum.

Will Brussels' move be enough to shift the dial, or is it too little too late? And what will be the economic cost of severing deeply entrenched dependencies if the EU draws the ire of Washington and Beijing? What's in the package?

The main target of the European Commission's proposal is the cloud sector, which provides the physical infrastructure underpinning most digital services. Amazon, Microsoft and Google account for 80% of the European market, with EU-based providers relegated to the margins.

The draft law introduces four different levels of digital sovereignty that public authorities must consider when purchasing cloud services, depending on how sensitive the use case is.

The highest tier, covering sectors such as defence and healthcare, would effectively bar non-European companies from winning public contracts. The aim is to prevent a so-called "kill switch" scenario, the risk that a foreign government might simply cut off access to hospitals or fighter jets.

For MEP Axel Voss (EPP/Germany), the Commission's approach is both bold and pragmatic. "Building genuine European cloud and AI sovereignty is overdue, and giving our providers a fair seat at the table in strategic public tenders is the right instinct," he said.

Europe also needs to catch up on chips — the fundamental components at the heart of almost every electronic device. The most advanced chips, used to develop cutting-edge AI technologies, are designed in the US and produced in Taiwan or South Korea.

After the first Chips Act failed to significantly bring semiconductor factories back to Europe through state subsidies, the Commission is trying again — this time focusing on stimulating demand for European chips, on the assumption that supply will follow.

Certain key sectors, such as automotive, will also be required to diversify their chip suppliers in certain circumstances, as part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on Chinese-subsidised producers accused of flooding the market through dumping. Will it be effective?

The guiding principle of the initiative is AI — the transformative technology that, much like the internet before it, is reshaping the digital economy. Cloud data centres and chips provide the essential infrastructure for the next generation of AI.

Yet the AI market is dominated by the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and DeepSeek. A European preference in lucrative defence contracts could serve as a lifeline for Mistral AI, the only EU-based company at the cutting edge of the AI race.

The EU lags significantly behind in data centre construction needed to meet expected demand for AI services in the coming years, held back by a mix of slow permitting, high energy costs and a scarcity of available land.

"Europe cannot regulate its way out of technological dependency," MEP Matthias Ecke (S&D/Germany) told reporters. "It must build its own capacity, overcoming one-sided dependencies and restoring a genuine choice for businesses and consumers alike."

At the same time, the EU is set to join a US-led initiative, Pax Silica, to secure chip supply chains, in recognition that Europe cannot do without Nvidia chips in the short term.

That dependency could nonetheless prove self-perpetuating: regulators and rivals warn that Nvidia tends to build a closed ecosystem that is difficult to break away from.

Continue Reading here - https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/06/03/can-europe-rejoin-the-international-tech-race

cross-posted from: https://feddit.online/c/euro/p/1737561/finland-seizes-nearly-eur4m-in-russian-assets

cross-posted from: https://feddit.online/c/euro/p/1737564/ukrainian-drones-strike-a-st-petersburg-oil-terminal-ahead-of-putin-visit

This map shows the average commuting time from home to work in Europe.

(Author: Maps.interlude, Link to image information and dfferent resolutions )

It might be surprising that, in spite of wildly different traffic systems and large differences in the use share of cars, these times are so similar.

An explanation is given in the wikipedia article on Marchetti's Constant. Basically, the time spent commuting is mostly an anthropological constant, and is largely independent of means of transport and culture.

In other words, if we use faster means of transport, we almost automatically commute larger distances - regardless whether this improves our quality of life or not.

This relationship should probably be central in modern traffic planning, but it is often not considered. (There is an interesting article in German by the traffic scientist Rudolf Pfleiderer, titled "Das Phänomen Verkehr", which describes in more detail the relationships between traffic, speed, and distance - perhaps somebody knows a good English article?)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.online/c/euro/p/1737491/european-union-reaches-deal-on-return-hubs-for-rejected-asylum-seekers

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/65482053

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/65476299

In case you missed, here is also moving dead people in Vietnam for Trump's golf course, where the USA can visit and play golf.

Vietnam moves its dead for Trump golf course https://archive.is/20260601022330/https://www.ft.com/content/88b21bb4-4d70-450b-8552-0acbc79a6ada

Protests have grown in recent days against plans by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, to develop luxury properties on an ecologically sensitive portion of the Albanian coast.

The protests, in the capital and in coastal towns, have become a lightning rod for widespread discontent in Albania, long one of Europe’s poorest countries. Another protest was planned for Tuesday night in Tirana, the capital.

For years, the plans — a $1.4 billion luxury hotel complex on an island off the coast and another development on a peninsula that is home to sensitive wetlands — have generated concerns about conservation and transparency.

Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania has repeatedly described the projects as a chance to expand the country’s booming tourist economy and to attract foreign investors.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rama said in a post on social media that the projects represented “the ambition to create the most attractive destination of this side of the Mediterranean.”

He has rejected suggestions by opponents of the plan that Mr. Kushner, who is one of several investors in the project, received preferential treatment to curry favor with his father-in-law, Mr. Trump.

The White House referred questions to Mr. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, which has been backed mostly with funding from the Saudi Arabian government. Affinity Partners referred questions to Sazan Real Estate Development LLC, the developer for both the Albanian projects.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to create a world-class destination and make one of the largest private investments in the region’s history,” Asher Abehsera, the chairman of Sazan, the projects’ developer, said in a statement.

He said their focus included “responsible stewardship” of the environment.

Not everyone in Albania agrees.

“It’s more or less everything there,” he said. “You find people from the left, people from the right, people from different religious beliefs.”

One issue, he said, is that no environmental impact report has been released publicly, as normally required for such a development project. Since late April, Mr. Bino said, demonstrators have gathered at the site of one of the planned developments on the Zvernec Peninsula, a 1,000-acre coastal area that is home to an array of birds, including flamingos and pelicans.

The protests started after he and other environmentalists noticed what looked like the start of construction, which he said included the tracks of heavy equipment and bulldozers dismantling sand dunes.

Mr. Bino said that in the past few days, the protests intensified after fencing, with barbed wire, was erected in the area. He said there is at least one access road, too.

And on Saturday, verified video shows, the disputes turned ugly.

Men shouted across barbed wire fences. Two men dragged another man across the sand by his arms, another clip shows, while people slung what looked like dirt at each other.

Mr. Bino and other protesters see the project as an emblem of what they fear could be democratic backsliding in Albania, which emerged from decades of Communist rule in 1991.

“It’s not only transparency about environmental law — but it’s transparency in general,” Mr. Bino said.

“It’s about democracy,” Mr. Bino added. “The protests are, of course, centered around protected areas — but it’s more about democracy in general.”

For years, locals have raised concerns about the ownership chain of the land, but deals have steamed ahead, overriding local frustrations.

In December 2024, after months of consternation, Albania gave preliminary approval to a plan proposed by Mr. Kushner to build on the uninhabited island of Sazan, once a secretive military base for submarines.

The Zvernec site would include 6,000 hotel rooms and villas if plans come to fruition.

Albanian environmentalists fear similar projects could follow. Mr. Bino, the conservationist, said people were worried that the plans could set a precedent in other environmentally sensitive areas.

“This project is becoming a sort of catalyst,” he said of the Zvernec site, adding that others were just “waiting in the wings” for approval.

The European Parliament will this week replace Google with France’s Qwant – a European alternative search engine – as the default on its computers, according to an email seen by Euractiv.