France and Germany have set out to create the bloc’s own “Silicon Valley”

Both Germany and France have ambitious aims to create its own cloud-based eco system in order to reduce the EU’s reliance on America’s Silicone Valley Tech-giants of the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

This joint initiative is being made with the vision of bolstering the blocs technical innovation and providing adequate funds towards start-ups. The project is a collaboration between the European Commission, Germany, France, and 100 companies and organizations. The aim of this project is creating data sovereignty and to bring data under greater European control.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier noted that the aim is “nothing less than a European moonshot in digital policy”. During a joint video conference regarding the venture, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said, “We are not China, we are not the United States, we are European countries with our own values and with our own economic interest that we want to defend.”

However, considering the nature of how the EU functions as a bloc, getting other member states to trust each other in terms of data flows is challenging. This means greater cooperation and compromises in order to lift this off the ground into a fully-fledged competitive force on a global scale.