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Will Brussels ever resist the US administration and US big tech? The current lack of response goes beyond a regulatory or financial shortcoming: it constitutes a moral collapse. This situation throws into question the very foundation of the EU's democratic identity. What is at stake is not merely the fate of firms such as Google or Meta, but the principle that the European Union has the right to govern its own digital space according to its own laws.

The Path to This Point

First, it's important to review the events leading here. During the summer, the European Commission agreed to a one-sided deal with the US that established a ongoing 15% tariff on EU exports to the US. The EU gained no concessions in return. The indignity was all the greater because the commission also consented to provide well over $1tn to the US through investments and purchases of energy and military materiel. This arrangement exposed the fragility of Europe's reliance on the US.

Soon after, the US administration warned of severe additional taxes if the EU enforced its laws against US tech firms on its own territory.

Europe's Claim vs. Reality

For decades EU officials has asserted that its economic zone of 450 million affluent people gives it unanswerable leverage in trade negotiations. But in the six weeks since Trump's threat, Europe has done little. Not a single retaliatory measure has been taken. No invocation of the recently created anti-coercion instrument, the often described “trade bazooka” that Brussels once promised would be its ultimate protection against foreign pressure.

By contrast, we have diplomatic language and a fine on Google of less than 1% of its annual revenue for longstanding market abuses, already proven in American legal proceedings, that allowed it to “abuse” its dominant position in Europe's advertising market.

American Strategy

The US, under Trump's leadership, has made its intentions clear: it does not aim to support EU institutions. It aims to undermine it. An official publication released on the US Department of State's website, composed in alarmist, inflammatory language similar to Viktor Orbán's speeches, charged Europe of “an aggressive campaign against democratic values itself”. It condemned alleged limitations on political groups across the EU, from German political movements to Polish organizations.

The Solution: Anti-Coercion Instrument

What is to be done? Europe's trade defense mechanism works by assessing the degree of the coercion and imposing retaliatory measures. Provided most European governments agree, the EU executive could kick US goods and services out of Europe's market, or impose taxes on them. It can strip their intellectual property rights, block their investments and require reparations as a requirement of readmittance to Europe's market.

The instrument is not only financial response; it is a statement of political will. It was created to demonstrate that Europe would always resist external pressure. But now, when it is needed most, it remains inactive. It is not the powerful weapon promised. It is a symbolic object.

Political Divisions

In the months preceding the transatlantic agreement, several EU states talked tough in official statements, but did not advocate the instrument to be activated. Some nations, including Ireland and Italy, openly advocated a softer European line.

A softer line is the worst option that Europe needs. It must implement its regulations, even when they are challenging. Along with the anti-coercion instrument, Europe should shut down social media “for you”-style systems, that suggest content the user has not asked for, on European soil until they are demonstrated to be secure for democratic societies.

Comprehensive Approach

The public – not the algorithms of foreign oligarchs serving external agendas – should have the autonomy to make independent choices about what they see and share online.

Trump is pressuring the EU to weaken its digital rulebook. But now more than ever, Europe should make large US tech firms accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. EU authorities must hold Ireland accountable for not implementing EU digital rules on American companies.

Regulatory action is insufficient, however. The EU must gradually substitute all non-EU “big tech” services and cloud services over the next decade with homegrown alternatives.

Risks of Delay

The significant risk of this moment is that if the EU does not act now, it will never act again. The longer it waits, the deeper the erosion of its self-belief in itself. The increasing acceptance that resistance is futile. The more it will accept that its laws are not binding, its governmental bodies lacking autonomy, its democracy not self-determined.

When that happens, the route to authoritarianism becomes inevitable, through automated influence on social media and the acceptance of lies. If the EU continues to cower, it will be drawn into that same decline. The EU must take immediate steps, not only to resist Trump, but to create space for itself to function as a free and sovereign entity.

Global Implications

And in doing so, it must make a statement that the rest of the world can see. In North America, South Korea and Japan, democracies are watching. They are questioning if the EU, the remaining stronghold of liberal multilateralism, will resist foreign pressure or surrender to it.

They are inquiring whether representative governments can endure when the most powerful democracy in the world abandons them. They also see the model of Brazilian leadership, who faced down Trump and demonstrated that the way to address a aggressor is to respond firmly.

But if Europe delays, if it continues to release diplomatic communications, to levy token fines, to anticipate a better future, it will have already lost.