EU Drafts Counteroffensive To China, US on Technology Rules (politico.eu) 34
The EU is taking a "Europe First" approach to technological standardization. From a report: The European Commission on Wednesday presented a plan to bolster its influence in creating global technology standards, as the bloc currently risks falling behind in global standardization organizations, where tech giants, government regulators and experts gather to set rules for how emerging technology works -- everything from the internet to batteries, connected devices and beyond. Faced with the U.S.' market dominance and China's aggressive attempts to rewrite global rules, the EU wants to raise its game. "We need to make sure we're not just a standard-taker. We need to be a standard-setter," said Thierry Breton, the EU's industry commissioner.
The new strategy comes at the start of a bumper year for standard-setting, which often happens out of the public eye, in industry-dominated groups packed with technical experts. Deals struck in organizations like the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) define how technology is implemented across the world. The ITU's flagship conference is scheduled for September in Budapest, when a new secretary-general will be named. Meanwhile, other international groups are working quickly to set standards for artificial intelligence, green technology and other major sectors, with companies and government officials tussling over which technologies will dominate the digital economy in the coming decade. The EU's plan follows its industrial strategy, released in March 2020, which already showed the bloc wants to set up competing policy initiatives to defend its companies against rivals from China and the U.S. that benefit from large-scale investment and subsidy schemes.
The new strategy comes at the start of a bumper year for standard-setting, which often happens out of the public eye, in industry-dominated groups packed with technical experts. Deals struck in organizations like the U.N.'s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) define how technology is implemented across the world. The ITU's flagship conference is scheduled for September in Budapest, when a new secretary-general will be named. Meanwhile, other international groups are working quickly to set standards for artificial intelligence, green technology and other major sectors, with companies and government officials tussling over which technologies will dominate the digital economy in the coming decade. The EU's plan follows its industrial strategy, released in March 2020, which already showed the bloc wants to set up competing policy initiatives to defend its companies against rivals from China and the U.S. that benefit from large-scale investment and subsidy schemes.
always a winner (Score:2)
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"Europe" has never been our friend.
They only tolerate us with they're staring down German or Russian guns.
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In spite of xenophobic fucktards like you ruining America, of course Europe has always been your friend, I mean, the majority of the American population is basically European - it's where most of you fucking came from only a few generations ago, and you have a giant French gifted statue as one of the key symbols of America.
Europe has joined many of your military crusades, Vietnam and the 2003 Iraq invasion was an exception rather than the norm and Vietnam was only because France had spent years getting slau
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Re: Time for a change (Score:3)
Actually France created the situation in Vietnam. They basically enslaved them for a long time. The entire middle east has its current situation sitting at the blame of both England and France, who basically tried to colonize the regions they defined, which had zero consideration for cultural or religious affiliation, which ended up in a situation where people who have been fighting one another for centuries suddenly have to live under the same government with the same rules.
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Not any more. Americans are browner and browner, and these new Americans don't give a shit about Old Europe.
doesn't mean Europe hates you
This long predates Trump. We as Americans get bombarded with the message that America is a destructive and evil influence in the world and that the last just war was WWII. The message is that the people who see America as a threat is literally everyone in the world, and our allies are just our allies because they fear us.
We get told by the world that we're racist, s
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Most of that doesn't come from Europe. Most of that comes from places like Russia and much of the muslim world.
Nope. Europe. [i.redd.it] The data is clear and convincing. Plus, they shout it at us all the time, how can anyone not notice? This comment lives in Bizarro World. Even during the height of the Cold War, Europeans despised us and wanted us gone. [washingtonpost.com] 'The terrorist Reagan must be welcomed with hatred, raised fists and loaded arms.' The president's personal safety has been most directly threatened in West G
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We're self-sufficient in food and energy both. We'll be fine. In fact, meddling in others' affairs is bankrupting us. Trillions for the military-industrial complex, but not one cent for the homeless.
Europe go down in flames
Who even said that? They want us out, let's get out. What do you call it when a country militarily occupies other nations that don't want it? Didn't we constantly bash the Soviets for exactly the same thing?
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As we convert to a renewable energy based worldwide military, we need to realize that long supply lines are a big problem.
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Withdraw from where? Afghanistan? Ukraine? We don't actually have combat units in either place.
We're not "withdrawing" from NATO countries.
Period.
Re:Time for a change (Score:4, Insightful)
These days, we do lots of things we used to bash the Soviets for. Why would that be a surprise?
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Soviet Union all over again? (Score:1)
You would have thought for the perceived intellectualism that the EU brags about, that they understand the problems with moving to a command economy, with isolationism at its core.
Europe has to trade. Other than France, the rest of Europe cannot feed itself.
Yes, there are some things Europe needs to do in-house, for national security purposes. However, Europe is focused on the absolutely wrong things. Instead of focusing on giving the middle finger to the US, they need to reconsider their stance on nucle
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If you did you would understand that they're doing none of those things. What are talking about doing however is setting some standards for goods sold within their border, which they're entirely entitled to do.
If they do, it will also benefit you.
Good plan (Score:2)
The only question is: should it be EU or EEC?
Electric Plugs (Score:3)
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It isn't as if they're "standards takers" because they weren't setting their own standards. They have lots of standards. Including for electrical plugs!
One thing Europe doesn't have is a nation state. They have a currency, so they have some financial power they didn't used to have. Here, as with electrical plugs, they don't have enough central decision-making for their standards to be very successful.
And it is silly to think the US gets some sort of industrial advantage out of having national standards that
Typical EU politicians (Score:2)
I don't know if they understand that exactly the overregulation done by the EU is the reason why it is falling back in creating anything new.
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I'm OK with the EU standardizing on USB-C (the physical) connector for phones - and pissing Apple off.
And why are you okay with that? Would you have been okay with it if they had standardized on the craptastic USB-MiniA plug 20 years ago, which could then never be improved? Mandates cause stagnation and unintended consequences...
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What is with all the anti-Europe rhetoric here? (Score:3)
As an American, I say "good!". International standards can and should represent the interests of the international community, and Europe is an important part of the international community.
If American technology companies are pushing out "standards"—the quotations marks are there to capture everything from proprietary "standards" that achieve success by being first to market, to committee-driven standards coming out of recognized standards bodies—without the necessary input from their European counterparts, that isn't a good thing for Europe or America in the long run. Consider what happens:
Option 1: European needs aren't met by the American standard, but they put up with it and make it work as best they can. Functionality that Europeans expect or want simply isn't possible at all because their needs weren't represented when the standard was designed. Maybe they adopt some conventions to address those concerns, but not everyone does so, so it becomes a hodgepodge and a mess. The market success of the American approach fills the market void well enough that no European approach can ever gain traction, even though European users are dissatisfied with the state of affairs. Americans gain nothing of note, but they piss off a lot of Europeans who aren't fond of being treated like second-class members of the community. We see this to varying degrees whenever American products representing American tastes and interests displace everything else in a market, as has been the case with a lot of Big Tech's recent offerings.
Option 2: European needs aren't met by the American standard, so they are forced to design and adopt their own standard. The delay in getting it out the door puts them years behind. Eventually they may catch up to and even surpass the American standard, but it's a rocky road that splits the market in two, forcing most companies to only support one market, rather than both. Everyone loses in this situation. And if the Europeans do pull ahead in the end, America doesn't gain any benefit until and unless we adopt their standard and become the second-class members in Option 1.
We all stand to gain if we work together on standards for cellular signals, smart home protocols, power transmission, or other technologies that are rolling out. If Europe can be at the table, helping design the better standard from the get-go that represents all of our interests, that's the Option 3 I want. Barring that, I'd rather that they're in a strong position to provide a competing standard that may eventually outcompete ours on its merits, since that's a good outcome as well.
As for the anti-European rhetoric here, I don't get it. Europe is awesome. You aren't perfect, but neither are we. We can and should work together on this stuff.
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- There are way too many regulations, too much bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is great for the bureaucrats working for the states and the EU, and it is great for existing large companies within the EU, since it make sit difficult for competitors. They are not gonna lobby against it. It is a huge hinderance for small companies though, and for people wh