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Will European leadership ever resist Donald Trump and US big tech? The current inaction is not just a regulatory or economic failure: it represents a moral failure. This inaction calls into question the bedrock of the EU's political sovereignty. What is at stake is not only the fate of firms such as Google or Meta, but the principle that Europe has the authority to regulate its own online environment according to its own rules.

The Path to This Point

First, consider the events leading here. During the summer, the European Commission agreed to a one-sided deal with the US that established a permanent 15% tax on European goods to the US. Europe gained no concessions in return. The indignity was compounded because the commission also agreed to direct well over $1tn to the US through financial commitments and acquisitions of energy and defense equipment. This arrangement revealed the vulnerability of the EU's reliance on the US.

Less than a month later, the US administration threatened severe new tariffs if Europe implemented its laws against US tech firms on its own territory.

The Gap Between Rhetoric and Action

Over many years Brussels has asserted that its economic zone of 450 million rich people gives it significant sway in international commerce. But in the six weeks since Trump's threat, Europe has taken minimal action. Not a single retaliatory measure has been taken. No activation of the new anti-coercion instrument, the often described “trade bazooka” that Brussels once promised would be its primary shield against external coercion.

Instead, we have diplomatic language and a penalty on Google of less than 1% of its annual revenue for longstanding anticompetitive behaviour, previously established in US courts, that enabled it to “exploit” its market leadership in the EU's digital ad space.

American Strategy

The US, under Trump's leadership, has made its intentions clear: it does not aim to strengthen European democracy. It seeks to weaken it. A recent essay released on the US State Department website, composed in alarmist, bombastic rhetoric reminiscent of Hungarian leadership, charged Europe of “systematic efforts against Western civilization itself”. It criticized supposed restrictions 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 functions through calculating the degree of the coercion and imposing retaliatory measures. If most European governments agree, the EU executive could remove US goods and services out of the EU market, or apply taxes on them. It can remove their intellectual property rights, prevent their financial activities and demand reparations as a condition of readmittance to EU economic space.

The instrument is not merely financial response; it is a statement of determination. It was designed to signal that the EU would always resist external pressure. But now, when it is needed most, it lies unused. It is not a bazooka. It is a paperweight.

Political Divisions

In the period leading to the transatlantic agreement, many European governments talked tough in public, but did not advocate the instrument to be activated. Others, such as Ireland and Italy, publicly pushed for a softer European line.

A softer line is the worst option that the EU needs. It must enforce its laws, even when they are inconvenient. Along with the trade tool, the EU should disable social media “recommended”-style systems, that suggest content the user has not requested, on EU territory until they are demonstrated to be secure for democracy.

Comprehensive Approach

Citizens – not the algorithms of international billionaires beholden to foreign interests – should have the autonomy to decide for themselves about what they see and share online.

Trump is putting Europe under pressure to weaken its digital rulebook. But now more than ever, Europe should hold large US tech firms accountable for distorting competition, surveillance practices, and targeting minors. Brussels must ensure Ireland accountable for not implementing Europe's online regulations on US firms.

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

Risks of Delay

The real danger of this moment is that if Europe does not act now, it will become permanently passive. The longer it waits, the deeper the erosion of its confidence in itself. The more it will believe that opposition is pointless. The greater the tendency that its laws are unenforceable, its institutions not sovereign, its political system dependent.

When that happens, the path to authoritarianism becomes unavoidable, through algorithmic manipulation on social media and the acceptance of lies. If Europe continues to remain passive, it will be drawn into that same abyss. The EU must take immediate steps, not just to push back against US pressure, but to create space for itself to function as a free and sovereign entity.

International Perspective

And in taking action, it must make a statement that the international community can see. In Canada, Asia and East Asia, democratic nations are observing. They are wondering if the EU, the last bastion of liberal multilateralism, will stand against external influence or surrender to it.

They are asking 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 confronted US pressure and showed that the way to address a aggressor is to hit hard.

But if the EU delays, if it continues to issue diplomatic communications, to impose symbolic penalties, to anticipate a improved situation, it will have already lost.