It’s time for the EU to stop talking out of both sides of its mouth. On the one hand, they pass regulations whose stated goal is to fight off Chinese incursions into various economic sectors. The effect is just the opposite. If it truly wants to protect against Chinese leadership in critical minerals, semiconductors, and AI, it must stop enforcing regulations that give Chinese firms an edge over American businesses. Strategic cooperation cannot coexist with regulatory discrimination.
The European Union is joining Pax Silica, the U.S.-led initiative to secure critical minerals, advanced chips, and AI supply chains against China’s growing influence. This should be a welcome step, and cause for celebration. Except the truth is, Brussels is already undermining the effort before its participation has even begun. On its own turf, the EU continues to enforce discriminatory trade barriers that weaken American firms and create openings for the very Chinese companies that Pax Silica is supposed to contain.
The problem is not difficult to identify, and it exists in the form of unjust digital regulations.
Through the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU has been quietly threatening America’s technological leadership and innovation. These digital rules impose major costs, obligations, and barriers on technology companies in Europe based on artificial criteria: market capitalization instead of proven dominance, user counts instead of demonstrated anticompetitive behavior. These are not tailored remedies. They are broad structural burdens imposed on companies that are large, successful – and American.
It’s no coincidence that under the DMA, five of the European Commission’s designated seven gatekeepers are American—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Unfortunately, Brussels is trying to curtail American technology companies in an attempt to make it easier for its own technology firms to succeed. For all the rhetoric about fairness and contestability, the practical effect is to single out U.S. firms while shielding European rivals from comparable pressure and fair competition. The EU has a long tradition of massively favoring its own firms, but they have truly jumped the shark in this situation.
Here, the strategy becomes not just misguided, but exceedingly dangerous. The companies waiting in the wings are not European alternatives poised to inherit the field due to preferential treatment. The inevitable beneficiaries are, in fact, China’s technology companies, which are eager to expand wherever the West appears weakened. This is not just a shot in the foot for the Euros; it shivs American companies and hands the keys to the kingdom to the Chinese.
If American technology companies lose room to operate in Europe, it will not be Brussels startups that suddenly fill the gap. It will be Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei, companies tied to a hostile strategic competitor that is already racing to dominate the next generation of artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure. That is the real-world consequence of treating U.S. technological strength as a liability rather than an asset.
The AI race is just beginning, and it will continue for years to come. Creating an uneven playing field and giving adversarial firms even a marginal advantage in the European market cuts directly against the bloc’s stated goal of reducing dependence on China and strengthening trusted technology supply chains. It also risks weakening the broader Western position in a contest with clear national security implications.
And what if Brussels refuses to change course?
EU bureaucrats should not be surprised if Washington begins to play by their same rules. European firms such as Germany-based T-Mobile, Sweden-based Spotify, Finland-based NOKIA, or Germany-based SAP have benefited enormously from access to the American market. If the EU continues to overregulate U.S. companies while demanding strategic alignment against China, American policymakers may start considering whether fair play means placing the same barriers on European champions in the U.S.
The decisions made by the EU will harm the U.S., not help their own companies, and assist the Chinese. What starts as a seemingly self-serving action ends up hurting all the good guys, helping the bad ones.
Steven Bucci is a visiting fellow in the Phillip N. Truluck Center for Leadership Development.