EU plans embassy in Silicon Valley
The plans aren’t just about keeping an eye on big tech’s market power. A second reason is likely to be geopolitical concerns.
The way to Silicon Valley from Europe is a long one. Apparently too far for those responsible in the European Union, which is why the union of states is now considering setting up a kind of embassy in California. That reports the Handelsblatt based on an internal paper from the European External Action Service (EEAS).
“Global tech companies have become powerful actors who have such a huge impact on society as has rarely been the case in the past,” it says. And further: “An informed dialogue with the private sector about their role and responsibility is an important part of external digital policy.”
On the one hand, the EU officials are likely to want to sit a little closer to the big companies such as Google and Facebook, which have been closely monitored in recent years by the European cartel watchdogs, among others. A local representation could establish direct contact with the companies and allow them to enter into a dialogue before new services or functions appear in Europe. And of course, conversely, you could introduce EU projects such as the GDPR directly on site.
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Digital alliance with the USA
On the other hand, the Handelsblatt also reports on a foreign and geopolitical component. The EU wants to pay more attention to the “geopolitics of new digital technologies”. It is with concern how “authoritarian systems use digital technologies as tools for social surveillance and repression”, says the draft of EU foreign representative Josep Borrell.
The authoritarian system here probably means China, possibly also Russia. Those countries that are increasingly using “technological developments for manipulation and interference”. In particular, China and its plans to become a “cyber superpower”, as headed by State President Xi Jinping, are evidently of concern to the EU representatives.
The planned message could then also be less intended to keep an eye on the big tech companies. But rather as a solidarity with the USA on the way to “digital diplomacy”. The authors of the Handelsblatt write that one of the tasks of the European Silicon Valley representative is to learn from the culture of innovation on the American west coast.
