EGN NEWS DESK
“This, I believe, might be the one greatest long-term problem for the European Union: the technological hole,” he stated, including that “we have to put that on the prime of the agenda,” alongside the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has put the difficulty on the prime of her subsequent mandate, bundling the portfolios of “tech sovereignty,” safety and protection and placing them within the fingers of considered one of her right-hand officers, Henna Virkkunen. Virkkunen, Finland’s nominee for Commission government vp, faces a European Parliament listening to on Nov. 12 to defend her plans.
Von der Leyen’s option to bundle tech and safety is telling, amid the warfare in Ukraine, waves of hybrid and cybersecurity threats to digital infrastructure, and world tech provide chains which might be being weaponized by the U.S. and China. The message: Technology might help serve the bloc’s safety and protection objectives.
But Ischinger fears the EU’s plans will fall quick: “My optimism is considerably restricted, as a result of I do not assume that authorities establishments, whether or not they’re on the nationwide stage or on the EU stage, can really do it.”
What’s holding Europe again is the fragmentation of its capital market, the previous ambassador stated, echoing the evaluation of former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in his current landmark report on Europe’s means to compete on the earth.
“The completion of the Capital Markets Union might be the one, most important precondition for getting this proper,” Ischinger stated.
