BRUSSELS — France and Germany will try one more time to agree on how to jointly develop a next-generation fighter jet — with a deadline in April. The project, known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), has stalled for months because of bitter disagreements between France’s Dassault and Germany’s Airbus Defence and Space, but French and German officials said Thursday they will try to reboot the program. “They just can’t seem to agree. Our job is to ensure they reach an agreement, so we have jointly decided to launch an initiative to bring Airbus and Dassault closer together in the coming weeks,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters ahead of a European Council meeting. “This must be done in a calm and respectful manner, precisely to identify areas of common ground.” A German official told reporters: “Germany and France have agreed to a final attempt at mediation between the industries, to be conducted by experts. Due to the upcoming decisions on the federal budget, a result must be reached by mid-April.” FCAS, which also includes Spain, is intended to replace Germany’s Eurofighter and France’s Rafale jets by around 2040. The program includes a warplane — which lies at the heart of the disagreement between the two defense giants — as well as drones and a combat cloud. While German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is open to developing two separate planes, Macron has spoken against that option. POLITICO previously reported that Macron met with Dassault CEO Eric Trappier and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury last week to discuss the project. The topic was also discussed at a bilateral meeting between the French president and German chancellor on Wednesday. Laura Kayali reported from Paris, and Giorgio Leali and Hans von der Burchard reported from Brussels.

Across Europe, governments are moving quickly to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). National strategies are being announced, innovation hubs funded and pilot programs launched. From healthcare to taxation, I have seen how AI is emerging as a powerful lever to enhance public services and safeguard digital resilience. Europe’s population is aging and economic pressure is being felt across the continent. At the same time, citizens expect faster, simpler services. In this context, departments are looking for targeted AI uses that reduce manual workload and improve service quality without adding risk or cost. > In order for AI to add value to an organization, it needs up‑to‑date data, > clear ownership and simple routes to information sharing across teams. However, progress is uneven. Many organizations are still at the trial stage. Capgemini research shows that nearly 90 percent plan to explore, pilot or implement agentic AI within the next two to three years, while EU institutions and member states are committing billions to digital transformation centered around AI. Only 21 percent of public sector organizations have advanced beyond experimentation to pilots or actual deployment of generative AI. The practical blocker is not enthusiasm: it is whether data is accurate, shared when needed and safe to use. A reality check for AI maturity In order for AI to add value to an organization, it needs up‑to‑date data, clear ownership and simple routes to information sharing across teams. Less than one in four organizations globally report high maturity in these fields. For civil servants, this often translates into small teams juggling operational delivery with transformation agendas, learning new tools on the job and managing risk without clear playbooks. > More than half of public sector organizations are concerned about AI > sovereignty, which is becoming central to safeguarding digital resilience. This gap matters. AI initiatives built on fragile data foundations may face risks such as inefficiency, bias and security vulnerabilities, which can erode trust in automated decisions, both internally and with citizens. Strengthening public sector data is therefore not only key to enabling AI, but also essential for improving the accuracy, efficiency and reliability of government decision-making. Getting the basics right also helps deliver ‘once‑only’ service patterns so citizens no longer need to repeatedly provide the same information to different authorities. By creating greater interoperability and portability, governments can reduce lock-in and strengthen long-term resilience. The readiness gap Europe is not lacking in ambition. Progress is underway, but common challenges remain; data silos between agencies, varying quality standards, unclear governance for data sharing and legacy systems that limit interoperability. Cultural hesitancy toward data-driven decision-making adds complexity, but it is not insurmountable. The good news is that these issues can be addressed with a strategic focus on data foundations and practical steps that reflect how government works: small, safe changes; clear owners; and visible benefits to users and staff. When data is accessible, trusted, and well managed, civil servants can share information confidently, driving innovation while maintaining compliance and security. > Setting clear targets, aligning strategy with operational reality, and > encouraging collaboration and shared behaviors across teams helps embed data > use into everyday work rather than treating it as an added burden. Through engagement with industry and public-sector stakeholders, I see growing momentum around these priorities and an opportunity for Europe to lead the way in scaling AI responsibly to deliver smarter, more efficient public services for citizens. Building the foundations of public sector AI Governments cannot buy their way into AI readiness, but can work to build it through sustained investment in four interconnected pillars. First, data sharing. Solving complex public sector challenges with AI depends on information flowing safely across organizational boundaries. In practice, this means making it easier for departments and agencies to reuse data that already exists. While most public sector organizations have initiatives underway, only 35 percent have rolled out or fully deployed data-sharing methods. Second, data control and sovereignty. Concerns about compliance and control are a daily reality for public sector leaders, and they are slowing AI adoption. More than half of public sector organizations are concerned about AI sovereignty, which is becoming central to safeguarding digital resilience. Compliance with data-localization laws and control over sensitive information become more complex when AI services are hosted in foreign jurisdictions. A 2024 European Commission report found that 80 percent of Europe’s digital technologies and infrastructure are imported. Third, a data-driven culture. This is a critical pillar of AI readiness. Setting clear targets, aligning strategy with operational reality, and encouraging collaboration and shared behaviors across teams helps embed data use into everyday work rather than treating it as an added burden. Fourth, data infrastructure. Robust, cloud-based data infrastructure is essential for storing, processing and analyzing data at scale, while respecting sovereignty requirements. Today, the lack of such infrastructure is the primary obstacle to effective data use. Only 41 percent of public sector executives say they can access data at the speed required for decision-making. Budget constraints are a real barrier, but they need not be paralyzing. By focusing on gradual, outcome-driven improvements rather than costly overhauls, organizations can demonstrate value and realize business outcomes. Public sector organizations such as the City of Tampere illustrate this four-pillar approach. By building data foundations gradually and strategically, while addressing data sharing, sovereignty, culture and infrastructure together, Tampere has shown how thoughtful investment can deliver tangible results without losing sight of long-term ambition. Achieving digital maturity AI can transform the public sector, but only if data readiness becomes the true measure of digital maturity. With sustained focus on governance, interoperability, culture, and infrastructure, governments can start to turn ambition into impact and deliver smarter, more trusted public services for every citizen.

The U.K. government must move to protect the financial services industry from the potential costs of an unpredictable Trump administration, the City of London’s newly appointed artificial intelligence czar told POLITICO.  City firms which are “heavily reliant on U.S. technology” face the “risk” of changes beyond their control due to the climate of uncertainty stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s government, said Harriet Rees, who is one of two appointments by the U.K. Treasury to champion artificial intelligence adoption in financial services. “I definitely see a geopolitical risk right now when it comes to our relationship with U.S. technology, our reliance on it,” said Rees, who serves as the chief information officer at Starling Bank. She added: “Within my role as AI champion, I will be looking for some more confidence for the industry as to what the government is doing to protect firms, or what mitigations the industry needs to be put in place, so that we’ve got the confidence that we won’t be out of pocket for the things that we don’t have any input over.” Her warnings come as multiple sectors are eyeing ways to diversify away from the U.S., particularly in the EU, in the wake of Trump’s ongoing tariff war and threat to use force to take Greenland. In financial services, the focus is on creating a new payments system to replace U.S. card heavyweights Visa and Mastercard. Aurore Lalucq, a left-leaning member of the European Parliament, said last month: “The urgency is our payment system. Trump can cut us off from everything.” In Britain, banks will meet in mid-March to discuss account-to-account payments, a system which would also bypass Visa and Mastercard by allowing payments directly between bank accounts. But regulators in the U.K. insist plans are about “resilience” rather than an intention to cut out the U.S. Industry plans should take into account this eventuality, Rees argued. “We see that the U.S. is prepared to make changes, be it tariffs, be it the way trade operates between countries and so where we are reliant … on exports from the U.S. we need to make sure that we understand the risks,” she said, adding that it’s key to “have plans in place as an industry to be able to cope with that, should that eventuality happen, that we have the government really lobbying on our side to make sure that that is an unlikely risk to crystallize.” British firms’ reliance on American cloud service providers poses a particular risk, Rees said, with U.S. tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google dominating in the cloud computing space. She called on regulators to ensure the providers are adhering to legislation. Any outage of these cloud providers could cause “significant disruption” for the financial services industry, Rees said, and Britain should “ensure that we hold those technologies to the same standards as we would any other critical infrastructure here in the U.K.” A bug in automation software took down Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud provider in the world, in October last year, causing outages for thousands of sites and applications. Last month, MPs criticized the government for not acting decisively enough on cloud service providers. New rules for “critical third parties” — firms, such as cloud providers, whose disruption could impact Britain’s financial stability — came into effect in Jan. 2025. They give the U.K.’s City regulators new powers of investigation and enforcement over providers designated as critical.  Despite the regime being in place for a year, no providers have been handed the designation. MPs on the Treasury Committee queried why the government “has been so slow to use the new powers at its disposal.”

Across Europe, governments are moving quickly to harness the potential of artificial intelligence. National strategies are being announced, innovation hubs funded, and pilot programs launched. From healthcare to taxation, I have seen how AI is emerging as a powerful lever to enhance public services and strengthen Europe’s global competitiveness. The urgency is political and practical: Europe’s ageing population, and economic pressure are squeezing budgets. Citizens expect faster, simpler services. In this context, departments are looking for targeted AI uses that reduce manual workload and improve service quality without adding risk or cost. However, progress is uneven. Many organisations are still at trial stage. Capgemini research shows that nearly 90% plan to explore, pilot or implement agentic AI within the next two to three years, while EU institutions and member states are committing billions to digital transformation centered around AI. Only 21% of public sector organizations have advanced beyond experimentation to pilots or actual deployment of generative AI. Now, the focus must shift from ambition to readiness. The practical blocker is not enthusiasm: it is whether data is accurate, shared when needed, and safe to use. Here Europe has a unique opportunity to lead the way. A reality check for AI maturity Many organizations still lack the basics that make AI useful: up‑to‑date data, clear ownership, and simple routes to share information across teams. Fewer than one in four organizations globally report high maturity in these fields. For civil servants, this often translates into small teams juggling operational delivery with transformation agendas, learning new tools on the job, and managing risk without clear playbooks. This gap matters. AI initiatives built on fragile data foundations may face risks such as inefficiency, bias, and security vulnerabilities, which can erode trust in automated decisions, both internally and with citizens. Strengthening public sector data is therefore not only key to enabling AI, but also essential for improving the accuracy, efficiency and reliability of government decision-making. Getting the basics right also helps deliver “once‑only” service patterns so citizens no longer need to repeatedly provide the same information to different authorities, in line with the ambitions of the Interoperable Europe Act. The readiness gap Europe is not lacking in ambition. Progress is underway, but common challenges remain: data silos between agencies, varying quality standards, unclear governance for data sharing and legacy systems that limit interoperability. Cultural hesitancy toward data-driven decision-making adds complexity, but it is not insurmountable. The good news is that these issues can be addressed with a strategic focus on data foundations, and practical steps that reflect how government works: small, safe changes; clear owners; and visible benefits to users and staff. When data is accessible, trusted, and well-managed, civil servants can share information confidently, driving innovation while maintaining compliance and security. As a board member of DIGITALEUROPE, I see this growing momentum across countries and sectors to make data a strategic priority. Europe can lead the way in scaling AI responsibly and delivering smarter, more efficient public services for citizens. Four pillars: the foundations of public sector AI Governments cannot buy their way into AI readiness. They must build it through sustained investment in four interconnected pillars. First, data sharing. Solving complex public sector challenges with AI depends on information flowing safely across organizational boundaries. In practice, this means making it easier for departments and agencies to reuse data that already exists. While most public sector organizations have initiatives underway, only 35% have rolled out or have fully deployed data-sharing methods. Programs like Europe’s Common European Data Spaces show what is possible: secure, trustworthy environments for collaboration that benefit both organizations and citizens. Second, data control and sovereignty. Concerns about compliance and control are a daily reality for public sector leaders, and they are slowing AI adoption. More than half of public sector organizations are concerned about AI sovereignty, and these concerns are actively hindering wider adoption of generative AI. Compliance with data-localization laws and control over sensitive information become more complex when AI services are hosted in foreign jurisdictions. A 2024 European Commission report found that 80% of Europe’s digital technologies and infrastructure are imported. It is no surprise that sovereignty concerns are fuelling efforts to strengthen digital autonomy, from national cloud strategies to proposals such as the EuroStack initiative, which envisages €300bn of investment over a decade. Third, a data-driven culture. This is a critical pillar of AI readiness. True data mastery requires more than tools – it demands leadership, collaboration, and trust in data-based decisions. Setting clear targets, aligning strategy with operational reality, and encouraging collaboration and shared behaviors across teams helps embed data use into everyday work, rather than treating it as an added burden. Fourth, data infrastructure. Robust, cloud-based data infrastructure is essential for storing, processing and analyzing data at scale, while respecting sovereignty requirements. Today, the lack of such infrastructure is the primary obstacle to effective data use. Only 41% of public sector executives say they can access data at the speed required for decision-making. Budget constraints are a real barrier, but they need not be paralyzing. By focusing on gradual, outcome-driven improvements rather than costly overhauls, organizations can demonstrate value and secure further investment. Public sector organizations such as the City of Tampere illustrate this four-pillar approach. By building data foundations gradually and strategically, while addressing data sharing, sovereignty, culture and infrastructure together, Tampere has shown how thoughtful investment can deliver tangible results without losing sight of long-term ambition. From ambition to execution AI can transform the public sector, but only if data readiness becomes the true measure of digital maturity. The next phase of public sector modernization in Europe will be defined not by who announces the boldest AI strategy, but by who builds the strongest data foundations. By investing in governance, interoperability, culture, and infrastructure today, Europe can lead the world in responsible AI, turning ambition into impact and delivering smarter, more trusted public services for every citizen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT * The sponsor is Capgemini * The ultimate controlling entity is Capgemini More information here.

NEW DELHI — French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have openly disagreed this week on the future of the embattled fighter jet program developed by France, Germany and Spain. French and German officials have privately said for months that the Future Combat Air System was at a dead end because of disagreements between the project’s main contractors. Now the rift between Paris and Berlin is increasingly coming out into the open, with Macron arguing Europe should have a standard fighter jet model and Merz saying the needs of European countries don’t necessarily align. FCAS is intended to replace Germany’s Eurofighter and France’s Rafale jets by around 2040. The program includes a warplane — which lies at the heart of the disagreement — drones and a combat cloud. The project has been repeatedly delayed by industrial disputes, especially between France’s Dassault Aviation and Germany-backed Airbus over leadership and control of the fighter jet. “We Europeans … have an interest in standardizing, in having a common model” for warplanes, Macron told reporters Thursday on the sidelines of a trip to India. “We have identified common needs. Are they being called into question? The answer is no … Is building multiple aircraft the best use of our money? We need to standardize.” That directly contradicts statements that Merz made earlier this week. The German chancellor said the German air force didn’t have the same requirements as that of France because French warplanes need to be able to carry nuclear weapons and land on aircraft carriers. Merz’s comments were interpreted by the Belgian defense minister as a death sentence for FCAS (Belgium has an observer status in the program). Berlin is open to making two different warplanes while still developing drones and a combat cloud together — and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told reporters on Thursday that his company is on board with this.  France, however, doesn’t see that as an option to end the stalemate. Macron, instead, doubled down on the need for Europeans to work together on defense, arguing the world was becoming ever more competitive with countries such as India eventually developing their own warplanes as well. “We carried out this project eight years ago. Has there been less need for Europe in terms of defense since then? No,” he said. “We must redouble our determination.” Laura Kayali reported from Paris. Tomasso Lecca contributed to this report from Brussels.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Seit rund zehn Monaten ist der ehemalige Top-Manager Karsten Wildberger Digitalminister in der Bundesregierung. Er soll Deutschland modernisieren, entbürokratisieren und digitalisieren. Gemeinsam mit Kanzler Friedrich Merz verfolgt er das Ziel, Deutschland zur KI-Nation zu machen. Joana Lehner und Jürgen Klöckner sprechen über diese Strategie für Künstliche Intelligenz. Wildberger steht für einen neuen Stil: den Versuch, ein Ministerium wie ein Unternehmen zu führen. Wo ist er damit erfolgreich und wo droht er zu scheitern? Joana und Jürgen analysieren auch, was der Digitalminister bereits erreicht hat und wo Reformen weiterhin nur schleppend vorangehen. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt ist der AI Summit in Indien. Wildberger ist Deutschlands Vertreter bei der internationalen Konferenz mit zahlreichen Politikern, Wirtschaftsvertretern und bis zu 250.000 erwarteten Besuchern. Teil der deutschen Delegation ist auch DeepL-CEO Jarosław Kutyłowski. Er hat den Online-Übersetzungsdienst zu einer Milliardenbewertung geführt. Von Neu-Delhi aus spricht er im Policy Talk über seine Diskussionen mit dem Digitalminister, über Rechenzentren außerhalb Deutschlands und darüber, warum er die großen KI-Konkurrenten aus den USA nicht fürchtet. Wie Wildberger in Indien empfangen wird, was er dort erreichen kann und wie sich der Minister gibt, wenn Kameras und Mikrofone aus sind, berichtet zudem Larissa Kögl vom neuen POLITICO Pro Technologie-Newsletter. Das Policy-Briefing für die digitale Macht von morgen startet in diesem April. ⁠Den exklusiven Testzugang gibt es hier.⁠ „Power & Policy“ zeigt jede Woche, wo und wie die Entscheidungen in der Wirtschaftspolitik fallen. ⁠Jürgen Klöckner⁠ und ⁠Joana Lehner⁠ von POLITICO sprechen mit Top-Entscheidern und liefern Off-the-Record-Einblicke aus der Redaktion und Machtzentren. Präzise Analysen, lange bevor Gesetze beschlossen sind. Der Podcast für alle in Wirtschaft und Politik, die einen Wissensvorsprung brauchen — immer donnerstags. Für Policy-Profis: Abonnieren und die Pro-Newsletter ⁠Industrie & Handel⁠, ⁠Energie & Klima ⁠und ⁠Gesundheit⁠. Jetzt kostenlos testen. Fragen und Feedback gern an ⁠powerandpolicy@politico.eu⁠ **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Fuchs & Cie.: Bei Fuchs & Cie. zählen Leistung und Erfolg. Im Interesse unserer Klienten und ihrer Themen. Deswegen jetzt bewerben. Gerne mit einem Hintergrund aus den Bereichen Defence, Finance, Data oder Energy. Bewerbung per Mail an karriere@fuchs-cie.de. Wir verstärken unsere Teams in Berlin, München und Frankfurt.** POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

BERLIN — Chancellor Friedrich Merz has openly questioned Germany’s participation in Europe’s flagship Future Combat Air System (FCAS), warning that Berlin could look beyond France for fighter jet partners if key disagreements cannot be resolved. In an interview with the German political podcast “Machtwechsel,” Merz said the standoff reflects fundamentally different military needs rather than politics. “This isn’t a political quarrel. We have a real problem in the requirement profile. And if we can’t solve that, then we can’t maintain the project,” he said. The chancellor’s remarks are the most explicit public signal yet that Berlin could abandon the project if the core design dispute cannot be resolved. At the center of the disagreement is the aircraft itself. France wants a next-generation jet capable of carrying nuclear weapons and operating from aircraft carriers — capabilities Germany does not currently seek. “The French need a nuclear-capable and carrier-capable aircraft in the next generation. The Bundeswehr doesn’t need that for now,” Merz said. That divergence raises a structural question for the program on whether partners build one aircraft or separate versions, he added. “France wants to build only one and align it with its own specifications. But that is not what we need.” Merz said he is discussing with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius whether Germany will even require a manned fighter jet in two decades, while signaling Berlin could consider alternative cooperation formats. “There are others in Europe, the Spanish anyway, but also other countries interested in talking with us about it,” he said, while insisting he does not see a political rupture with Paris. FCAS is intended to replace Germany’s Eurofighter and France’s Rafale around 2040 through a networked “system of systems” combining a stealth jet, drones and digital combat cloud technologies. But the project has been repeatedly delayed by industrial disputes, especially between France’s Dassault Aviation and Germany-backed Airbus over design authority. Officials in both countries have recently acknowledged the possibility that the joint fighter element of the project could fail even if other technologies survive. 

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has disabled AI features on the work devices of lawmakers and their staff over cybersecurity and data protection concerns, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO. The chamber emailed its members on Monday to say it had disabled “built-in artificial intelligence features” on corporate tablets after its IT department assessed it couldn’t guarantee the security of the tools’ data. “Some of these features use cloud services to carry out tasks that could be handled locally, sending data off the device,” the Parliament’s e-MEP tech support desk said in the email. “As these features continue to evolve and become available on more devices, the full extent of data shared with service providers is still being assessed. Until this is fully clarified, it is considered safer to keep such features disabled.” The European Union has beefed up its data security policies in recent years, in part due to concerns around foreign technology vendors. A group of lawmakers in November urged the Parliament to ditch internal use of Microsoft software in favor of a European alternative, POLITICO reported. The institution in 2023 also banned the use of social media app TikTok on staff devices and recommended that MEPs delete it from their phones. The latest move to switch off AI tools concerns built-in features like writing and summarizing assistants, enhanced virtual assistants and webpage summaries in both tablets and phones, an EU official said, granted anonymity to disclose details of the security policy. Apps, email, calendar, documents, and other day-to-day tools are not affected, the email to lawmakers said. In a written statement to POLITICO, the European Parliament press service said it “constantly monitor[s] cybersecurity threats and quickly deploys the necessary measures to prevent them,” but wouldn’t comment on specific security or cybersecurity matters due to their “sensitive nature.” The Parliament declined to clarify what exact built-in AI features have been disabled, or what systems the work devices operate on. The email also urged lawmakers to “consider applying similar precautions” for their own, private devices, especially those being used for work-related tasks. Members should avoid exposing work emails, documents or internal information “to AI features that scan or analyze content,” be “cautious” with third-party AI apps and “avoid granting broad access to data,” the email said.

MUNICH, Germany — U.S. officials have countered Europe’s push for technology sovereignty from America with a clear message: It’s China you should worry about, not us. The European Union is rolling out a strategy to reduce its reliance on foreign technology suppliers. Donald Trump’s return to office has put the focus on American cloud giants, companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink and X and others — with European officials increasingly concerned that Washington has too much control over Europe’s digital infrastructure. As political leaders and security and intelligence officials met in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Washington sought to calm nerves. The idea that Trump can pull the plug on the internet is not “a credible argument,” the United States’ National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross told an audience Thursday. Europe and the U.S. “face the same sort of threat and the same threat actors,” said Cairncross, who advises Trump on cybersecurity policy. Rather than weaning off America, wean off China, he said: “There is a clean tech stack. It is primarily American. And then there is a Chinese tech stack.” Claiming that U.S. tech is as risky as Chinese tech is “a giant false equivalency,” according to Cairncross. “Personal data doesn’t get piped to the state in the United States,” he said, referencing concerns that the Beijing government has laws requiring firms to hand over data for Chinese surveillance and espionage purposes. The attempt to quell concerns is notable even if it may not change the direction of travel in Europe. The European Commission wants to boost homegrown technology with a “tech sovereignty” package this spring. It presented a cybersecurity proposal in January that, if approved, could be used to root out suppliers that pose security risks — including from America. “We want to ensure that we don’t have risky dependencies when it comes to critical sectors,” the Commission’s Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen told POLITICO in an interview in Munich on Friday. “We see this in AI, quantum technologies and semiconductors — we must have a certain level of capacity ourselves.” Europe’s attempt to pivot away from U.S. dependencies, while not new, has gained support in past months as the transatlantic alliance creaked. The POLITICO Poll conducted in February showed far more people described the U.S. as an unreliable ally than a reliable one across four countries, including half the adults polled in Germany and 57 percent in Canada. “The leadership claim of the U.S. is being challenged, perhaps already lost,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the conference Friday. REBALANCING ACT Europe is still working out what a forceful attempt to build technology sovereignty would look like, as it reforms everything from industrial policy programs to procurement rules and data and cybersecurity requirements on companies and governments. Top European cyber officials in Munich told POLITICO that technological sovereignty does not mean cutting ties with trusted partners. Vincent Strubel, director of France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI, said sovereignty means avoiding being bound by rules set elsewhere. “It’s about identifying what leverage non-European countries may have based on the technology they provide,” Strubel said in an interview. “It’s not about being friendly or unfriendly with any country — it’s about recognizing that we [currently] have no say in how that leverage might be used.” Claudia Plattner, head of Germany’s cybersecurity agency BSI, said, “We need to become more independent. We need to strengthen our local and European industries … We need to become digitally successful — that is essential to economic strength and to security.” The BSI plans to test sovereign cloud offerings from several large tech companies, including AWS and Google. The testing will examine whether European services can operate independently from parent systems and will help inform Germany’s national cloud strategy. Critics of Europe’s efforts to turn away from the U.S. say it is bound to lead to worse security. Christopher Ahlberg, the CEO of threat intelligence firm Recorded Future, said he understood that things like military command and control must remain national, “but if you start choosing sub-par cyber products just to achieve sovereignty, you’re going to be target No. 1 because threat actors will discover the vulnerabilities.” COMMON GROUND ON CHINA While tensions persist over the U.S.’s dominant position, Washington and European capitals have common ground when it comes to caution over Chinese tech. The EU is drafting legal requirements to cut out Chinese tech from critical supply chains including telecom networks, energy grids, security systems and railways. That move drew the ire of the Chinese government, which called it “blatant protectionism.” Many of the measures mirror what U.S. authorities have done in the past decade. “The U.S. understands what national security is. They don’t want to hear: ‘The U.S. is a threat.’ But they understand resilience,” said Sébastien Garnault, a prominent French cyber policy consultant. Trump “is putting America first, and the same goes in cyberspace,” Cairncross said. But, he added, “we don’t want it to be America alone. We want that partnership.” Laurens Cerulus contributed reporting.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Die AfD ist zurück bei der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz. Diesmal offiziell. Drei Abgeordnete sind akkreditiert. Ausgerechnet Markus Frohnmaier, außenpolitischer Sprecher und Vertrauter von Alice Weidel, ist nicht eingeladen. Er reist aber dennoch an. Im Podcast analysieren Gordon Repinski und Pauline von Petzold, warum Frohnmaier die MSC als PR-Bühne im Wahlkampf nutzt, welche Rolle seine Kontakte in die USA spielen und weshalb die AfD mit deutlich größeren Erwartungen nach München gekommen ist. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht der CDU-Außenpolitiker Norbert Röttgen über die Erwartungen an München, die Rolle von US-Außenminister Marco Rubio und die strategische Lage Europas. Ein weiteres zentrales Thema: das Future Combat Air System (FCAS), das gemeinsame deutsch-französisch-spanische Kampfjet-, Drohnen- und Cloud-Projekt. Die Beteiligten kommen nicht über die Rahmenbedingungen überein. Die neuesten Probleme kennt Chris Lunday und er ordnet ein, worauf es letztlich hinauslaufen könnte. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna **(Anzeige) Eine Nachricht von Netflix: Netflix – da klingelt was? Das Unternehmen hinter Film- und Serien-Hits wie Im Westen nichts Neues und Adolescence nimmt euch diese Woche im Berlin Playbook Newsletter mit ”behind the Streams”! Erfahrt, wie Netflix als fester Teil des Medienstandorts Deutschland mit Geschichten “made in Germany” weltweit begeistert und gesellschaftliche Debatten anstoßen kann. Eine ganze Woche für Fans von Politik und Popcorn. Aufmerksames Lesen lohnt sich – Gibt auch was zu Gewinnen!**