April 16, 2021
Introduction
The Covid-19 crisis has produced an inflation of speeches on the need for Europe to increase control over its production, its sovereignty but also to increase its weight and autonomy in relation to the great world powers (China and the United States) in order to assert its own position. We can see an increase in the number of declarations by EU officials in this direction, from representatives of Member State governments to European institutions
The multiplication of this type of reference underlining a desire for affirmation of the European Union stems from an awareness influenced by several factors. The question of sovereignty has been a recurring theme for several years, and the Union must formulate responses to those who want to “take back control”, which often rhymes with the desire to renationalize Member States’ policies.
The Trump presidency confirmed the many divergences between Europe and the United States on a series of key issues, and raised questions about the strength of the transatlantic link. The issue of data sovereignty and control in the context of transatlantic trade has produced a series of disputes, both with regard to corporate activity and the protection of individual rights. These differences do not call into question the military alliance, but rather outline a rivalry at another, extremely competitive level, that of mastery of information technologies, which requires radical adaptation on the part of democracies, as it draws complex triangulations where tech giants are inserted alongside states
In addition, the technological competition between the United States and China places Europe in a position of having to make choices, which sometimes leads to a plea for greater autonomy, over and above the strength of the transatlantic relationship
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Covid crisis provoked a disruption in supply chains and highlighted Europe’s dependence on China for certain supplies. This factor, combined with the image of a “Chinese virus”, first pointed to trade relations with China as a weak spot that should lead to repatriation of certain types of production to Europe
The climate of crisis reinforces the idea of the need for European independence both to assert its own global projection and to strengthen resilience, i.e. to be less dependent on other world powers.
It is in this context that we have seen the emergence of two concepts that are becoming politically performative at the European level: technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy. The ins and outs of these proposals need to be analyzed in order to define perspectives that will enable the Union to emerge from the entropy linked to the multiplication of declarations and to reach a forward-looking vision that can bring together a lasting consensus.