🔗 Share this article The EU's Covert Tool to Combat US Economic Coercion: Moment to Utilize It Will the EU ever confront Donald Trump and US big tech? The current lack of response is not just a legal or economic failure: it constitutes a moral failure. This situation calls into question the bedrock of the EU's democratic identity. What is at stake is not merely the future of companies like Google or Meta, but the principle that the European Union has the right to govern its own digital space according to its own laws. The Path to This Point To begin, consider how we got here. In late July, the European Commission accepted a one-sided deal with the US that established a permanent 15% tax on European goods to the US. The EU gained no concessions in return. The indignity was compounded because the EU also agreed to direct more than $1tn to the US through financial commitments and purchases of energy and military materiel. This arrangement revealed the vulnerability of the EU's reliance on the US. Less than a month later, Trump warned of crushing new tariffs if the EU enforced its regulations against American companies on its own territory. Europe's Claim vs. Reality For decades Brussels has asserted that its economic zone of 450 million affluent people gives it unanswerable leverage in trade negotiations. But in the month and a half since Trump's threat, Europe has done little. Not a single counter-action has been implemented. No invocation of the recently created trade defense tool, the often described “trade bazooka” that Brussels once promised would be its primary shield against external coercion. By contrast, we have diplomatic language and a penalty on Google of less than 1% of its yearly income for longstanding market abuses, previously established in American legal proceedings, that enabled it to “exploit” its market leadership in Europe's digital ad space. US Intentions The US, under Trump's leadership, has made its intentions clear: it no longer seeks to strengthen European democracy. It aims to weaken it. An official publication released on the US State Department platform, written in paranoid, bombastic language similar to Hungarian leadership, charged Europe of “an aggressive campaign against Western civilization itself”. It criticized alleged limitations on political groups across the EU, from the AfD in Germany to PiS in Poland. The Solution: Anti-Coercion Instrument How should Europe respond? Europe's trade defense mechanism works by assessing the extent of the pressure and imposing counter-actions. Provided EU member states agree, the European Commission could kick US products out of the EU market, or impose tariffs on them. It can strip their intellectual property rights, prevent their financial activities and require reparations as a requirement of re-entry to EU economic space. The instrument is not merely financial response; it is a statement of political will. It was designed to demonstrate that Europe would always resist external pressure. But now, when it is most crucial, it remains inactive. It is not the powerful weapon promised. It is a paperweight. Internal Disagreements In the period leading to the EU-US trade deal, many European governments talked tough in public, but failed to push for the mechanism to be activated. Some nations, such as Ireland and Italy, openly advocated more conciliatory approach. A softer line is the worst option that the EU needs. It must implement its regulations, even when they are challenging. Along with the anti-coercion instrument, the EU should shut down social media “recommended”-style algorithms, that suggest material the user has not requested, on EU territory until they are proven safe for democracy. Broader Digital Strategy Citizens – not the automated systems of international billionaires beholden to foreign interests – should have the freedom to decide for themselves about what they view and share online. Trump is putting Europe under pressure to weaken its digital rulebook. But now especially important, the EU should make large US tech firms accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. EU authorities must hold Ireland accountable for not implementing Europe's online regulations on US firms. Regulatory action is insufficient, however. The EU must gradually substitute all foreign “big tech” platforms and cloud services over the next decade with European solutions. The Danger of Inaction The significant risk of the current situation is that if Europe does not take immediate action, it will never act again. The longer it waits, the deeper the decline of its self-belief in itself. The increasing acceptance that opposition is pointless. The greater the tendency that its laws are not binding, its institutions not sovereign, its democracy dependent. When that occurs, the path to undemocratic rule becomes unavoidable, through automated influence on social media and the normalisation of lies. If Europe continues to remain passive, it will be drawn into that same abyss. Europe must take immediate steps, not only to resist US pressure, but to create space for itself to function as a independent and autonomous power. Global Implications And in doing so, it must plant a flag that the international community can see. In Canada, Asia and East Asia, democratic nations are watching. They are questioning if the EU, the last bastion of liberal multilateralism, will resist external influence or yield to it. They are inquiring whether democratic institutions can survive when the leading democratic nation in the world abandons them. They also see the model of Lula in Brazil, who confronted Trump and demonstrated that the approach to deal with a bully is to hit hard. But if Europe delays, if it continues to issue polite statements, to impose symbolic penalties, to anticipate a improved situation, it will have already lost.