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Will European leadership finally stand up to Donald Trump and American tech giants? The current lack of response goes beyond a regulatory or financial shortcoming: it constitutes a ethical collapse. This situation throws into question the very foundation of the EU's political sovereignty. The central issue is not only the future of firms such as Google or Meta, but the principle that Europe has the right to regulate its own online environment according to its own regulations.

How We Got Here

To begin, it's important to review how we got here. During the summer, the EU executive accepted a one-sided deal with Trump that established a ongoing 15% tariff on EU exports to the US. Europe gained no concessions in return. The embarrassment was all the greater because the EU also agreed to provide more than $1tn to the US through financial commitments and acquisitions of resources and military materiel. This arrangement exposed the vulnerability of Europe's reliance on the US.

Soon after, Trump threatened crushing additional taxes if the EU enforced its laws against American companies on its own soil.

Europe's Claim vs. Reality

For decades Brussels has asserted that its market of 450 million rich people gives it significant leverage in trade negotiations. But in the six weeks since the US warning, Europe has taken minimal action. No retaliatory measure has been implemented. No activation of the new trade defense tool, the often described “trade bazooka” that the EU once promised would be its primary shield against foreign pressure.

Instead, we have diplomatic language and a fine on Google of less than 1% of its yearly income for established market abuses, previously established in US courts, that allowed it to “abuse” its market leadership in Europe's advertising market.

American Strategy

The US, under Trump's leadership, has signaled its goals: it no longer seeks to strengthen EU institutions. It seeks to weaken it. An official publication released on the US Department of State's website, written in paranoid, inflammatory rhetoric similar to Hungarian leadership, accused Europe of “an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself”. It criticized alleged limitations on authoritarian parties across the EU, from the AfD in Germany to Polish organizations.

Available Tools for Response

What is to be done? The EU's trade defense mechanism works by assessing the degree of the pressure and imposing retaliatory measures. If EU member states consent, the European Commission could remove US goods and services out of Europe's market, or apply taxes on them. It can strip their patents and copyrights, prevent their investments and demand compensation as a requirement of re-entry to EU economic space.

The tool is not only economic retaliation; it is a declaration of determination. It was designed to signal that the EU would always resist foreign coercion. But now, when it is needed most, it lies unused. It is not a bazooka. It is a symbolic object.

Internal Disagreements

In the period preceding the transatlantic agreement, several EU states talked tough in official statements, but failed to push for the mechanism to be activated. Others, such as Ireland and Italy, publicly pushed for more conciliatory approach.

Compromise is the worst option that Europe needs. It must enforce its laws, even when they are inconvenient. In addition to the trade tool, Europe should disable social media “recommended”-style algorithms, that recommend material the user has not requested, on EU territory until they are demonstrated to be secure for democracy.

Comprehensive Approach

Citizens – not the algorithms of foreign oligarchs beholden to foreign interests – should have the freedom to make independent choices about what they see and distribute online.

The US administration is pressuring the EU to water down its digital rulebook. But now especially important, Europe should make large US tech firms accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. EU authorities must ensure certain member states accountable for failing to enforce Europe's online regulations on US firms.

Regulatory action is not enough, however. The EU must gradually substitute all non-EU “big tech” services and computing infrastructure over the next decade with European solutions.

Risks of Delay

The significant risk of this moment is that if Europe does not take immediate action, it will never act again. The longer it waits, the more profound the erosion of its self-belief in itself. The more it will believe that resistance is futile. The greater the tendency that its regulations are not binding, its governmental bodies lacking autonomy, its political system not self-determined.

When that occurs, the route to undemocratic rule becomes inevitable, through automated influence on social media and the acceptance of misinformation. If the EU continues to cower, it will be drawn into that same abyss. The EU must act now, not only to resist Trump, but to establish conditions for itself to exist as a free and autonomous power.

International Perspective

And in doing so, it must plant a flag that the rest of the world can see. In North America, South Korea and East Asia, democratic nations are watching. They are questioning if the EU, the remaining stronghold of international cooperation, will resist external influence or surrender to it.

They are inquiring whether democratic institutions can survive when the leading democratic nation in the world turns its back on them. They also see the model of Lula in Brazil, who faced down Trump and demonstrated that the way to address a aggressor is to hit hard.

But if Europe hesitates, if it continues to release polite statements, to levy token fines, to hope for a improved situation, it will have already lost.