A token gesture. Europe is extremely dependent on foreign tech. I don't see the political will to really change that. I think the main causes are corruption, incompetence, extortion (negotiations on trade, etc.), and short-term thinking of politicians and managers. People did warn them, but they were ignored. They fucked the citizens long-term. Treason.
Critical infrastructure, such as energy, healthcare, or train service, runs on US software and services and thus only works as long as the US allows it. In Germany, the German Railway moved all of their software services into US clouds and shut down their own data center. That didn't protect them from a recent DDoS, taking down their main customer-facing site for hours.
Meanwhile, the local job market abounds with job ads from government agencies and private businesses, requiring administrating MS software (AD, 365, Exchange), cloud and doing "Power"-stuff.
The study "European Software and Cyber Dependencies" [1] (Dec 2025) from of the European Parliament explains the dire state. It's full of money quotes:
"Non-EU actors, primarily US companies, control nearly all critical layers of Europe’s digital stack. These dependencies are reinforced by vendor lock-in, long-term contracts, proprietary formats, & network effects that limit switching and suppress market entry for EU innovators"
"80% of European corporate spending on software and cloud flows to US vendors."
"Public administrations rely heavily on Microsoft and Google productivity suites, with only isolated instances of migrations to open-source alternatives"
"A case study of the EU’s energy infrastructure provides a further illustration of how its digitalisation creates critical cyber dependencies. Industrial control, grid management, and market-trading software increasingly rely on non-EU vendors and cloud platforms."
"Such heavy reliance on US tech and vendors results in [...] tangible sovereignty risks. The CLOUD Act, FISA Act and US sanctions regimes give US authorities legal reach over data of European citizens and institutions hosted by American providers."
"Dependence extends across the supply chain — from chips and hardware (90% of advanced semiconductors imported) to developer tools and standards (GitHub, Docker, and major programming frameworks are US-governed);"
"The EU’s digital trade deficit exceeds EUR 100 billion annually"
"These outflows finance US R&D and jobs: according to one study, retaining just 15% of this spending could create around 500,000 jobs in Europe by 2035;"
"Lock-in inflates long-term costs and undermines innovation, while dependence on external platforms diminishes Europe’s leverage in trade and security negotiations;"
"Europe’s software and cyber dependencies are becoming a structural strategic liability. [...] without decisive action, Europe risks becoming a “digital colony”- dependent on others’ platforms, standards, and priorities for decades to come."
"[EU]’s deep reliance on non-EU tech is a strategic vulnerability. It exposes the EU to geopolitical coercion (a de-facto “virtual kill switch”), with potential cascading disruption across finance, health, energy and transport if access to […] cloud or key software is curtailed.
"In the current geopolitical scene, technology interdependence is being weaponised. External pressure can push the EU to dilute rules or face retaliatory trade measures, while dependence reduces Europe’s geopolitical leverage."
"the EU already faces pressure to dilute its own digital regulations to appease allies or avoid retaliation – recently, trade negotiators even been softening EU digital rules (like the new Digital Markets Act) in exchange for avoiding US tariffs"
"if a major US platform suffered a prolonged outage, or if transatlantic relations deteriorated, leading to data access blocks, a large swath of European business and government services could grind to a halt."
"semiconductors account for about 80% of the strategic value of a data centre; building AI campuses without European hardware will therefore send most of the value abroad"
"After the demise of the multi-ethnic Empire of Japan in 1945, successive governments had forged a single Japanese identity by advocating monoculturalism and denying the existence of more than one ethnic group in Japan. [...] the notion of ethnic homogeneity was so ingrained in Japan, to which the former Prime Minister Taro Aso (1940-), in 2020, notably claimed in an election campaign speech that “No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group and one dynasty”." [1]
They have a long history of "Aryan-like" master race theory [2].
Why would the Japanese want to trade in their distinctiveness and positive societal attributes for dubious gain? It endangers the fabric of society.
Where has mass migration been a net benefit for a larger country in recent times? Europe has been "culturally enriched", which puts even more pressure on the already strained welfare-, medical-, education- and housing-system, lessening the quality for all. There has been an increase in savage violence, such as gang rapes and brutal attacks, as well as organized crime, terrorism and epic fraud the institutions are not equipped to handle. Outrageous sums of tax payer money is used to pay off foreign countries, so that they throttle the influx of migrants somewhat, which also makes Europe vulnerable to blackmail by those countries. The people do not want (incompatible or malicious) foreigners. The governments are incompetent in letting in only the good ones and getting rid of the bad ones.
to which the former Prime Minister Taro Aso (1940-), in 2020, notably claimed in an election campaign speech that “No other country but this one has lasted for as long as 2,000 years with one language, one ethnic group and one dynasty”." [1]
Yeah, and so what? What was so special about this? Taro is the one trying to qualify this as something positive.
The only reason Japan even exists today is because the US let it exist. Japan was destroyed after WW2. The US rebuilt it. Now with less guidance from the US, it's destroying itself again. If racist homogeneous Japan was so great, why did it get so smashed?
I personally think the culture is still trying to get over this humiliation. I don't think they will ever get over it honestly.
Aso is such a dinosaur.
There are more Indians working in Kombinis now than ever, and that's going to only get worse. Maybe if they had a more progressive and slow moving immigration policy 20 years ago, they would've had better ways to integrate these people and protect their culture. But yeah, "who would've thought the population would go backwards, how would Aso have planned for it?" lol
"Inflation, the wrong concept is to think of it as a single number, it is a multi-dimensional number. You have inflation for stock, real estate, food, energy. The policy makers bundle this into a single number, which is very misleading." - Didier Sornette; Oct 11, 2023; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbU70IA4Z_w
That seems cheap. The German state pissed away €76B in mostly non-productive Covid aid, made subsidy fraud so mindbogglingly easy, it resulted in billions of illegitimate aid paid out. Unbelievable levels of incompetence and/or corruption. It does not matter what other countries do, when our government shoots our own country with a bazooka. Western Europe is crumbling, besieged from the outside, corroded from the inside. Darkness beckons. Source (German): https://archive.is/Ai8u1
That is insanely cheap when you see how much money the German automakers have pissed away. For example, Daimler's Smart car brand alone posted over 4 billion Euros in losses. They could have gone to space with that money.
Not just in Germany either, but France and Italy, they're all pushing crazy money in the local auto industry for the sake of maintaining local jobs, with little else to show for.
By comparison, the Chinese taxpayer got a really good deal here.
>it resulted in billions of illegitimate aid paid out.
Ah yeah, I remember watching a report on ZDF while the authorities were repo-ing someone's Bentley, how during Covid the German Gov was reimbursing test centers money for Covid tests without requesting any solid proof that the tests were actually made.
So an entire industry sprung up where everyone and their mom were opening sham covid test centers but only on paper, and so enterprising individuals were making hundreds of thousands of Euros from submitting fake reimbursement claims to the government which the government paid outright without doing any checks.
In general the German government is totally shit at being eficient and fiscally responsible with it's citizens' money. They spend like drunken sailors on useless crap during the good times, and when the bad times come it's "sorry bruh we're broke, time for public service cutbacks".
>For example, Daimler's Smart car brand alone posted over 4 billion Euros in losses. They could have gone to space with that money.
Those are private losses, meaning they are subsidized by Mercedes themselves. Also Smart is as much a German Brand as it is a Chinese brand. Geely lost exactly the same money Mercedes did.
Additionally you are not counting the losses correctly, even if smart looses money, selling cheap low emissions often electric city cars is hugely beneficial to Mercedes, due to European car regulations.
>Not just in Germany either, but France and Italy, they're all pushing crazy money in the local auto industry for the sake of maintaining local jobs, with little else to show for.
No. They are selling cars, like any healthy industry would do. I don't get what you think automobile companies could accomplish, besides producing cars for people to use and employing people to make them. The Chinese are doing exactly the same and get the same benefits.
>By comparison, the Chinese taxpayer got a really good deal here.
They got a productive car industry. Like it exists in France or Germany.
>1. Smart are anything BUT cheap hence the low sales and the losses.
The price is irrelevant to the benefits they provide in the eyes of EU regulations. You can not look at the 4 Billion in losses while ignoring European laws. Pure luxury car makers are near impossible to operate. Which is why Aston Martin bought a cheap Toyota design to make into a small city car.
>2. The losses are quoted were before the Geely partnership.
And? Mercedes lost exactly the same amount of money the Chinese did. In no way is this more of a loss for China than it is for Germany.
>The question is which is more productive, the Chinese one, or the German/EU one.
The Chinese has massive advantage when it comes to the cost of materials, energy and labor which is why near identical cars there are insanely cheap. If you consider as an output of the car industry also the social benefits, then obviously German car companies are a great place to work, especially compared with conditions in China.
>You can not look at the 4 Billion in losses while ignoring European laws.
What does the loss and being terrible at selling cars have to do with EU laws? EU laws didn't make them be shit.
>And? Mercedes lost exactly the same amount of money the Chinese did. In no way is this more of a loss for China than it is for Germany.
How would the Chinese have lot money if Daimler lost that money before they entered the partnership with Geely?
>f you consider as an output of the car industry also the social benefits
The social benefit of making Diesel cars that reduce years of our lifespan thanks to air pollution, but at least they're a great place to work? With that logic the war in Ucraine is also a social benefits since it creates places to work.
>What does the loss and being terrible at selling cars have to do with EU laws? EU laws didn't make them be shit.
Do you just not understand how EU car regulations work? Otherwise I think you would understand why the 4 Billion loss is something Mercedes is happy to accept. Because it simply isn't a 4 Billion dollar loss.
>How would the Chinese have lot money if Daimler lost that money before they entered the partnership with Geely?
It's been 5 years since the partnership. The company isn't even called Daimler anymore and if they aren't loosing money now...
>but at least they're a great place to work?
Yes. Also people can go wherever they want whenever they want, which is another great benefit. Enormous benefits all together, which is why China is so keen on building cars.
Ironically that aid is an anti-subsidy on the actually quite productive automobile industry in Germany, which directly and indirectly contributes massively to the taxes, which were then given away in said aid you described.
In Palestine 26.8% of the population is obese, 57%-67% of mothers in Gaza are obese or overweight, says Wikipedia, which cites a 2014 paper. It lists "decreased physical activity and greater than necessary food consumption" and "lack of sex-segregated facilities and cultural norms are prohibitive factors" as reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_the_State_of_Palesti...
When I think financial services and simple architecture, I think of Python, ORM, Kubernetes, Cloud, GraphQL and admission of "data-integrity bugs" and "paying retail public cloud prices".
The article itself mostly discusses tech choices rather than architecture. Half of their choices, they seem to regret.
On the service itself: It seems detrimental for African countries (or any country) to allow external financial services to get ingrained and allow them to milk their own populace and prevent the development of state-owned, cost-neutral, non-profit, long-term solutions for the public good. Payment should be public infrastructure, not private profiteering.
Is anyone here donating Dan $180k/year (+VAT) for his blogging?
Critical infrastructure, such as energy, healthcare, or train service, runs on US software and services and thus only works as long as the US allows it. In Germany, the German Railway moved all of their software services into US clouds and shut down their own data center. That didn't protect them from a recent DDoS, taking down their main customer-facing site for hours.
Meanwhile, the local job market abounds with job ads from government agencies and private businesses, requiring administrating MS software (AD, 365, Exchange), cloud and doing "Power"-stuff.
The study "European Software and Cyber Dependencies" [1] (Dec 2025) from of the European Parliament explains the dire state. It's full of money quotes:
"Non-EU actors, primarily US companies, control nearly all critical layers of Europe’s digital stack. These dependencies are reinforced by vendor lock-in, long-term contracts, proprietary formats, & network effects that limit switching and suppress market entry for EU innovators"
"80% of European corporate spending on software and cloud flows to US vendors."
"Public administrations rely heavily on Microsoft and Google productivity suites, with only isolated instances of migrations to open-source alternatives"
"A case study of the EU’s energy infrastructure provides a further illustration of how its digitalisation creates critical cyber dependencies. Industrial control, grid management, and market-trading software increasingly rely on non-EU vendors and cloud platforms."
"Such heavy reliance on US tech and vendors results in [...] tangible sovereignty risks. The CLOUD Act, FISA Act and US sanctions regimes give US authorities legal reach over data of European citizens and institutions hosted by American providers."
"Dependence extends across the supply chain — from chips and hardware (90% of advanced semiconductors imported) to developer tools and standards (GitHub, Docker, and major programming frameworks are US-governed);"
"The EU’s digital trade deficit exceeds EUR 100 billion annually"
"These outflows finance US R&D and jobs: according to one study, retaining just 15% of this spending could create around 500,000 jobs in Europe by 2035;"
"Lock-in inflates long-term costs and undermines innovation, while dependence on external platforms diminishes Europe’s leverage in trade and security negotiations;"
"Europe’s software and cyber dependencies are becoming a structural strategic liability. [...] without decisive action, Europe risks becoming a “digital colony”- dependent on others’ platforms, standards, and priorities for decades to come."
"[EU]’s deep reliance on non-EU tech is a strategic vulnerability. It exposes the EU to geopolitical coercion (a de-facto “virtual kill switch”), with potential cascading disruption across finance, health, energy and transport if access to […] cloud or key software is curtailed.
"In the current geopolitical scene, technology interdependence is being weaponised. External pressure can push the EU to dilute rules or face retaliatory trade measures, while dependence reduces Europe’s geopolitical leverage."
"the EU already faces pressure to dilute its own digital regulations to appease allies or avoid retaliation – recently, trade negotiators even been softening EU digital rules (like the new Digital Markets Act) in exchange for avoiding US tariffs"
"if a major US platform suffered a prolonged outage, or if transatlantic relations deteriorated, leading to data access blocks, a large swath of European business and government services could grind to a halt."
"semiconductors account for about 80% of the strategic value of a data centre; building AI campuses without European hardware will therefore send most of the value abroad"
[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2025/7785...