BRUSSELS — Call it a digital love triangle.

When EU leaders back a “sovereign digital transition” at a summit in Brussels this Thursday, their words will mask a rift between France and Germany over how to deal with America’s overwhelming dominance in technology.

The bloc’s founding members have long taken differing approaches to how far the continent should seek to go in detoxing from U.S. giants. In Paris, sovereignty is about backing local champions and breaking reliance on U.S. Big Tech. In Berlin the focus is on staying open and protecting Europe without severing ties with a major German trading partner.

The EU leaders’ statement is a typical fudge — it cites the need for Europe to “reinforce its sovereignty” while maintaining “close collaboration with trusted partner countries,” according to a near-final draft obtained by POLITICO ahead of the gathering.   

That plays into the hands of incumbent U.S. interests, even as the bloc’s reliance on American tech was again brought into sharp focus Monday when an outage at Amazon cloud servers in Northern Virginia disrupted the morning routines of millions of Europeans.  

As France and Germany prepare to host a high-profile summit on digital sovereignty in Berlin next month, the two countries are still seeking common ground — attendees say preparations for the summit have been disorganized and that there is little alignment so far on concrete outcomes.

When asked about his expectations for the Nov. 18 gathering, German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger told POLITICO he wanted “to have an open debate around what is digital sovereignty” and “hopefully … have some great announcements.” 

In her first public appearance following her appointment this month, France’s new Digital Minister Anne Le Hénanff, by comparison, promised to keep pushing for solutions that are immune to U.S. interference in cloud computing — a key area of American dominance.  

Contrasting playbooks  

“There are indeed different strategic perspectives,” said Martin Merz, the president of SAP Sovereign Cloud. He contrasted France’s “more state-driven approach focusing on national independence and self-sufficiency in key technologies” with Germany’s emphasis on “European cooperation and market-oriented solutions.” 

A recent FGS Global survey laid bare the split in public opinion as well. Most French respondents said France “should compete globally on its own to become a tech leader,” while most Germans preferred to “prioritize deeper regional alliances” to “compete together.”

The fact that technological sovereignty has even made it onto the agenda of EU leaders follows a recent softening in Berlin, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz becoming increasingly outspoken about the limits of the American partnership while warning against “false nostalgia.”

The coalition agreement in Berlin also endorsed the need to build “an interoperable and European-connectable sovereign German stack,” referring to a domestically controlled digital infrastructure ecosystem. 

Yet Germany — which has a huge trade deficit with the U.S — is fundamentally cautious about alienating Washington.  

“France has been willing to accept some damage to the transatlantic relationship in order to support French business interests,” said Zach Meyers, director of research at the CERRE think tank in Brussels.  

For Germany, by contrast, the two are “very closely tied together, largely because of the importance of the U.S. as an export market,” he said.  

Berlin has dragged its feet on phasing out Huawei from mobile networks over fears of Chinese retaliation, against its car industry in particular.  

The European Commission itself is walking a similar tightrope — dealing with U.S. threats against EU flagship laws that allegedly target American firms, while fielding growing calls to unapologetically back homegrown tech.

Stuck on definition 

“Sovereignty is not a clearly defined term as it relates to technology,” said Dave Michels, a cloud computing law researcher at Queen Mary University of London.  

He categorized it into two broad interpretations: technical sovereignty, or keeping data safe from foreign snooping and control, and political sovereignty, which focuses on strategic autonomy and economic security, i.e safeguarding domestic industries and supply chains. 

“Those things can align, and I do think they are converging around this idea that we need to support European alternatives, but they don’t necessarily overlap completely. That’s where you can see some tensions,” Michels said. 

Leaders will say in their joint statement that “it is crucial to advance Europe’s digital transformation, reinforce its sovereignty and strengthen its own open digital ecosystem.”

“We don’t really have a shared vocabulary to define what digital sovereignty is. But we do have a shared understanding of what it means not to have digital sovereignty,” said Yann Lechelle, CEO of French AI company Probabl.

Berlin isn’t the only capital trying to convince Europe to ensure its digital sovereignty remains open to U.S. interests.  

Austria, too, wants to take “a leading role” in nailing down that tone, State Secretary Alexandre Pröll previously told POLITICO. The country has been on a mission to agree a “common charter” emphasizing that sovereignty should “not be misinterpreted as protectionist independence,” according to a draft reported by POLITICO.

That “will create a clear political roadmap for a digital Europe that acts independently while remaining open to trustworthy partners,” Pröll said.  

Next month’s Berlin gathering will be crucial in setting a direction. French President Emmanuel Macron and Merz are both expected to attend.

“The summit is intended to send a strong signal that Europe is aware of the challenges and is actively advancing digital sovereignty,” a spokesperson for the German digital ministry said in a statement, adding that “this is not about autarky but about strengthening its own capabilities and potential.”

“One summit will not be enough,” said Johannes Schätzl, a Social Democrat member of the German Bundestag. “But if there will be an agreement saying that we want to take the path toward greater digital sovereignty together, that alone would already be a very important signal.”

Mathieu Pollet reported from Brussels, Emile Marzolf reported from Paris and Laura Hülsemann and Frida Preuß reported from Berlin.