【Wen / Observers Network, Ruan Jiaqi】

Since President Trump took office, he has frequently used tariffs and economic threats, even contemplating the annexation of Greenland, and leveraging Europe's reliance on the United States for defense and security to continuously pressure Brussels. At the same time, his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement has been increasingly supporting far-right, populist, and Eurosceptic parties in Europe.

Facing the ongoing tension in U.S.-Europe relations, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kallas, spoke frankly in an interview: "I believe everyone should recognize a fact — the United States has clearly stated that they want to split Europe, and they don't like the EU."

According to a report by the Financial Times on the 13th, this EU foreign minister warned that European countries are now striving to avoid a breakdown in their relationship with the increasingly hardened United States. She called on member states to abandon their own individual approaches and unite to face the U.S. economic threats and geopolitical games, and not to fall into a passive position for short-term gains. She emphasized that only by uniting can the EU stand on equal footing with the United States.

The EU foreign minister Kallas is interviewed by the Financial Times

The report mentioned that one of the measures taken by the EU to respond to the challenges posed by the Trump administration is accelerating the implementation of the "Technological Sovereignty Package," aimed at strengthening Europe's independent capabilities in cloud solutions and software, while preventing possible extreme measures such as technological supply cuts and export controls from the U.S.

However, the European business community has issued cautious warnings. Many people believe that Europe's current high dependence on American digital infrastructure means that rushing to "de-link" under the pretext of pursuing technological sovereignty would not only impact corporate profits, damage Europe's overall competitiveness, but also incur significant economic transformation costs.

CEO of Thyssenkrupp Material Services, Ilse Henn, frankly said: "Europe today does not have the capability to fully replace existing IT solutions with local alternatives."

The EU foreign minister: Unite to fight against Trump!

In an interview with the Financial Times, Kallas stated that anyone who carefully reads the recent U.S. government's "National Security Strategy" and "Defense Strategy" reports should no longer hold any illusions about the U.S.

What she referred to were two documents released by the White House in December last year and January this year, which proposed cultivating opposing forces in Europe and declaring the need for "precision adjustments" in U.S. military support to Europe; it also accused European countries of suppressing freedom of speech, hindering the Ukrainian peace process, and even claimed that their immigration policies would lead to "civilizational decline."

Trump also openly supported Hungary's Prime Minister Orbán, who has the most pro-Russian stance and the strongest Eurosceptic tendencies, in his campaign for re-election next month; Vice President Vance also supported far-right candidates in other European elections, including the Germany's Alternative for Germany in last year's federal election.

After Trump won the U.S. presidential election in 2024, Orbán visited Mar-a-Lago

In Kallas' view, the various actions of the Trump administration are deliberately "splitting Europe," and its methods are similar to those of the EU's "adversaries." She did not explicitly mention who these "adversaries" were, but she was busy lamenting that the U.S.-Europe relationship had fallen into a "very complex situation."

Kallas admitted that there are obvious differences among the 27 EU member states on the U.S. policy: The Trump administration's tough attitude has strengthened the arguments of countries like France to push for Europe to reduce its reliance on the U.S. and pursue more "strategic autonomy"; however, another part, especially EU countries close to Russia, are worried that angering Trump could accelerate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Europe. This concern makes it difficult for the EU to reach a consensus on future action paths.

She then called on the EU to unite to counter the Trump administration's tough tactics rather than seeking bilateral negotiations individually. "The U.S. doesn't like to see us united because only when we are united can the EU stand on equal footing with the U.S."

"If we agree on the diagnosis, we should also agree on the treatment," she added. Although taking strong measures may trigger retaliatory actions from the U.S. and pay short-term costs, in the long run, Europe must appear strong to earn respect, "which is the only way the U.S. can understand."

However, Kallas also warned that pushing for strategic autonomy shouldn't be too hasty. In the short term, the EU can simultaneously pursue the two goals of "calming the Trump administration" and "reducing dependence on the U.S."

"We still need to purchase related materials from the U.S., because the EU currently lacks the resources, conditions, and capabilities. But at the same time, we must increase investment in the domestic defense industry."

She emphasized that Europe must never "put all eggs in one basket."

European industry is full of refusal: Getting rid of dependence on the U.S., I can't do it!

Regarding the call from the EU decision-makers, the attitude of the European industry can be summarized in one sentence: I understand the principle, but I really can't do it!

According to a report by the Financial Times, from banking to manufacturing, the majority of industries in Europe state that they rely heavily on U.S. technology in areas such as office software, cloud infrastructure, and rapidly developing artificial intelligence services. If forced to "de-link" quickly, it will inevitably cause serious operational chaos.

Recently, executives from European technology and infrastructure companies such as ASML, Ericsson, and Capgemini have repeatedly issued warnings against the EU's trade protectionist measures, arguing that this would raise costs and slow down investment.

Regarding the EU's planned "Technological Sovereignty Package" to be launched next month, many European companies believe that the political sphere underestimates the operational complexity and cost of changing the technical system, and given that the European industry is already facing multiple pressures such as competition from China, high energy prices, and uncertainty in transatlantic trade.

Companies and experts point out that European companies, especially globally operating ones, have built their digital systems on U.S. technology platforms. Switching systems requires retraining employees, rewriting software, renegotiating contracts, and accepting the resulting business interruptions. More importantly, many companies believe that Europe currently has no viable alternatives to U.S. software.

Francesca Musiani from the French National Center for Scientific Research said that decades of business processes, production efficiency, and business models of multinational corporations are built on U.S. technology. She pointed out that unlike public institutions, private companies, if they change technology on the grounds of sovereignty or security, their justification would be difficult to sustain if costs rise or service quality declines.

"Private companies are in a global competitive environment, and any drop in operational efficiency will eventually translate into a loss of market share," she added.

March 12, 2026, Rhine region, Germany, Microsoft holds the groundbreaking ceremony for a new cloud data center. Oriental IC

Taking the financial sector as an example. Deutsche Bank warned in its latest annual report released this Thursday that the finance industry's increasing reliance on a few major global cloud service providers and data centers located mainly in the U.S. is deepening industry concentration and raising systemic risks.

However, Commerzbank was unconcerned. It believed that the benefits of using U.S. service providers currently outweigh potential risks. Moreover, the coverage, quality, and maturity of services provided by companies like Microsoft and Google are only partially achievable by Europe.

Alexander Schloof of the consulting firm Publicis Sapient also said that European banks continue to rely on U.S. large-scale cloud service providers because only these companies' technologies offer the scalability, stability, and innovation speed currently available.

The report mentioned that behind the EU's push for technological sovereignty lies a concern about the risk of being cut off: people worry that the Trump administration might use sanctions and export controls to force U.S. tech companies to stop serving Europe. Although most executives believe the probability is low, this issue has become a recurring topic in boardrooms and government meetings.

U.S. tech companies are working hard to reassure European governments and enterprises, promising that their services will not be affected by the Trump administration's policies, while criticizing the EU's technological sovereignty tendency for the risk of sliding into protectionism.

Many European business representatives also echoed this, saying that unless the single market is improved, regulatory burdens are reduced, and capital pools are expanded first, making indigenous alternatives feasible, the risk of protectionism would continue to rise.

A large European automaker told the Financial Times that replacing existing technological facilities would generate additional costs and time costs, so it is better to focus the current technological sovereignty construction on future projects such as artificial intelligence rather than current business processes.

At the same time, a new perspective is emerging in Berlin: considering the huge investment required to build domestic cloud infrastructure and basic systems, Europe should prioritize using advanced AI models from abroad instead of trying to build its own basic systems from scratch.

An internal German government official called this a "trade-off" between technological sovereignty and global competitiveness. He said that European companies should focus on "using the best available AI models" in the next three to four years, otherwise they may be overwhelmed by the competitive waves of Chinese and U.S. companies.

Martin Hulin from the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin also suggested that Europe should avoid blindly replicating the "super-large company trap" of Silicon Valley giants. Instead, he advocated building an industrial ecosystem and grasping the next round of innovation cycles.

"There are very interesting opportunities here, but the premise is that Europe must use appropriate industrial policy tools to seize these opportunities."

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Original: toutiao.com/article/7616710929065001522/

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