The Brief – Will nobody rescue the EU’s digital rulebook?

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Trump’s unbridled belligerence stops at no frontier; to think otherwise is nothing short of delusion. It’s an observation that has been demonstrated time and again, and yet the EU has seemingly abandoned the edifices that matter most in times of tempest.

When the EU secured a trade deal with the US at the end of July, it initially seemed that the bloc’s flagship digital rulebook had been left unscathed, allowing Europe to retain its regulatory muscle so vital in an era of predatory tech behemoths and foreign online interference.

The relief was almost audible and might have been held up as a genuine EU victory when the rest of the Turnberry deal gave so little to celebrate. Alas, the terms of the “deal” were far from settled and the humiliation meted out by the Trump administration has grown in the following weeks.

So who could have been surprised when his crosshairs did eventually settle on the bloc’s digital rulebook? After all, this is the man who takes potshots at penguins. It was only a matter of time before he picked his next target and with the world’s most powerful tech bros in his ear the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) were always high on the US’ hit list.

Little wonder then when the peace was broken with fresh threats on Truth Social last week: “I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies,” proclaimed Trump – not mentioning the bloc directly. “Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology.”

What was wonderous, however, was the radio silence from the EU – most notably the bloc’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen, who instead posted a picture with her dog on Instagram to highlight National Dog Day.

It was left to former commissioner Thierry Breton to man the lonely tech parapet with a series of editorials imploring the EU to “stand together” against such threats. But despite his previous pluck in squaring up to Elon Musk, Breton no longer has the power to rally the troops.

Instead we see a strategy of silence as Europe meekly bows to Trump’s demands – as already shown by the failure to wield the DMA. The EU is currently investigating X, Meta, Apple, and Google under its laws, but aside from the modest fines imposed on Meta and Apple under the DMA in April, no other DSA investigation has been concluded.

In particular, the verdict on Musk’s X has yet to be delivered – a decision which is bound to spark outrage from the MAGA crowd. But the EU’s reluctance to unleash the full force of its digital regulations won’t stop them from being attacked.

And though Virkkunen issued a late promise on Monday to defend and enforce the digital laws, her failure to respond directly to Trump’s threats only accentuates their fragility.