Tech Pro Brief

Wed 13 November 2024 | View online
Estimated reading time: 4-5 minutes


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Thank you for joining us for our daily Tech Pro briefing. Today we are covering the Commissioner hearings, the upcoming telecoms conclusions, and US cooperation with EU countries on space.


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🟡 Top stories

No white smoke and little details

We don’t have confirmation on two of the most important Commission positions for tech, neither did we get much detail on what they plan to pursue should they be confirmed.


Last night, two of the biggest headliners for tech policy, Henna Virkkunen and Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, the EU’s designated tech and competition czars respectively, were grilled by MEPs.


Confirmation for the two of them could come as early as tomorrow and as late as next week.


A coalition from the European Parliament's pro-European majority, EPP, S&D, and Renew, has delayed the confirmation meetings for the executive vice-president nominees, including Virkkunen and Ribera.


The effect of Trump’s election was palpable in both rooms, with Virkkunen fending off attacks that she is taking advantage of her gender to get the position and Ribera having to affirm that climate change is real.


Virkkunen towed the Commission line carefully, mainting confidence as she answered MEPs questions. She didn’t give much beyond what was in her written responses. Here are some tidbits we found interesting:

  • She said the Digital Networks Act “could also” be a review of the European Electronics Communication Code.

  • She is “not very satisfied” with the implementation of the 5G toolbox in the EU.

  • She would like to see member states require mobile operators to de-risk their infrastructure by reducing reliance on products from high-risk vendors like China’s Huawei and ZTE. This could come in the current review of the Cyber Security Act.

  • She suggested a  "Quantum Act” aimed at pooling EU countries' quantum researchers and investments.

  • She will ask the Commission services reporting to her “to list all the reporting obligations for our industries and SMEs," and "see how they can cut these obligations."


Ribera was continuously attacked by the right on her lack of experience on competition policy. She clearly did her homework though and kept a cool demeanour through a hectic hearing. That being said, she didn’t give us specifics on killer acquisitions or how a “new competition policy” will enable European tech champions without hurting consumers.

  • She said the Commission needs to “find other means to structurally strengthen” its capacity to enforce the DMA when asked about a lack of compliance and the possibility of levying monitoring fees on Big Tech firms.

🟡 Telecom

Cautious conclusions

The Council conclusions on the Commission’s February white paper on telecom are expected to be discussed at Coreper I next Wednesday (20 November).


The conclusions have been singificantly and repeatedly watered down through the compromise texts.


The PermReps will debate a modified version of the Hungarian Presidency's third -and hopefully last- compromise text, dated Thursday and seen by Euractiv.


The modifications we expect:

  • §31 on spectrum: deletions of the modifications made between the 2nd and 3rd compromise text, or even revert wording to the 2nd compromise text version. The current version states that "the management, licensing and organisation of radio spectrum is largely a national competence," while the previous version stated that these fell "within the national competence" of Member states.

  • §35 on consolidation: the language should be polished. Its current version reads; "market driven consolidation, could, provided there is still effective competition in the relevant market, create economies of scale in electronic communications networks in the EU and thus open up further opportunities for market players."


Other modifications between the second and third compromise texts revolve around more neutral language on Big Tech:

  • §15: a more cautious stance on the level playing field between telecoms and Big Tech. The Council writes that this suggestion "requires further analysis whether and to what extent players of a converged ecosystem could fall under the same rules applicable.

  • §28 more cautious wording related to the IP interconnection market, indicating that the Commission should conduct an impact assessment in order to regulate this market

🟡 Space

United Space Force

The US Space Force will continue "to help build allied and partner capacity in support of a safer, more stable space domain," after Donald Trump's election, a spokesperson told Euractiv.


The Space Force was one of the few government institutions started by Trump himself in his previous term, in 2019. It is a part of the military that tries to defend US interests in space, which is a pretty wide and wild mandate, including anything from cybersecurity to defense from space attacks on satellites.


"Partnerships have been a key priority for the U.S. Space Force since its foundation," the spokesperson told Euractiv. So much so, that Air Marshall Paul Godfrey, a UK Air Force official, was appointed as Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships at the US Space Force.


Such a high-level appointment of an official from another country is far from common in the military, the Space Force told Euractiv.


But the Space Force is lacking an EU counterpart, so on a trip to Europe, it engaged in bilateral talks with Norway, Sweden, as well as NATO in late October.


In their engagements with the NATO Military Committee, Space Force's Chief of Space Operations General Chance Salzman said they "get a general concept" about how the alliance thinks about space. "But when you go to Norway, when you go to Sweden, when you go to the individual countries, you get much more fidelity" on what these states are thinking, Salzman said.


Where these points of collaboration will go once Trump is in office, remains to be seen.

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Today’s briefing was prepared by the Tech team: Eliza Gkritsi, Théophane Hartmann, and Jacob Wulff Wold. Share your feedback or information with us at digital@euractiv.com.

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