Europe as a Global Technology Power and Technological Sovereignty

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the EU's strategies for technological sovereignty, including major legislative acts, financial initiatives, and geopolitical shifts in the digital landscape.

Strategic autonomy

Defined in the $2016$ EU Global Strategy as the capacity to act autonomously when and where necessary and with partners wherever possible.

Mario Draghi report

A report highlighting an alarming moment for EU states regarding competitiveness and the growing gap between the EU and the US in the digital revolution.

Brussels Effect

The use of the EU internal market's power and its role in global trade to exert geopolitical influence through trade and competition policy.

FDI screening

Foreign Direct Investment screening; a mechanism used to limit investment from outside the EU to protect domestic industries.

InvestAI initiative

An initiative announced by Von der Leyen at the February $2025$ Paris AI Action Summit, worth $€200$ billion and aimed at achieving AI sovereignty.

AI factories and AI gigafactories

Data centres and facilities intended to make the EU more competitive, receiving $€20$ billion of the InvestAI funding.

The EuroStack

A plan to build local capacity across the entire digital value chain—including semiconductors, data, computing, and connectivity—to enhance homegrown innovation.

EU Chips Act (2023)

A policy involving $€43$ billion in investment to secure Europe’s semiconductor supply and increase its global market share from $10\%$ to $20\%$ by $2030$.

ASML and Solvay

World-leading companies based in Europe that provide the machines and resources necessary for chip manufacturing.

EU AI Act

Legislation that entered into force in August $2024$, prohibiting AI uses classified as unacceptable risk and imposing rules on frontier and high-risk models.

Unacceptable risk

A classification under the EU AI Act for AI uses such as social credit scoring, emotion recognition, and facial recognition technology (unless used for security purposes).

Foundational models

Large-scale AI models like OpenAI/ChatGPT that are subject to rules under the EU AI Act, though exclusions exist for certain French and German open-source companies.

AI Omnibus package

A package that has seen strong lobbying and protests due to loopholes that may pose security risks to EU citizens.

Mercantilism

A shift in global political economy where the state exerts strong influence on steering the economy toward protectionism and industrial policy.

Normative power

An image of the EU as an actor guided by fundamental rights, which is increasingly challenged by a shift toward hard or geopolitical power.

AI bubble

A concern that AI companies are overvalued based on speculative future profits without currently delivering usable products, potentially leading to significant debt.