DMA: Encirclement Without End?

We are only a few days on from the Berlin summit on European Digital Sovereignty, where the DMA  was celebrated as an essential component to reaching that objective.  It is evidently displeasing to Americans that they were not granted a prominent role (but still with a seat at the table) at a European technological summit, even though they remained very much the Elephants in the Room. Then the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is dispatched by Big Tech to Brussels and applies pressure across the board, anchoring the negotiation to tariffs on steel and aluminium on whether we are prepared to weaken our DMA and DSA rules. And this hurts, also common Germans, as pointed out by the MEP Alexandra Geese. The Digital Omnibus,  neatly arranged on a tray, proved insufficient to placate the American technological ogres.

One must recognise that the DMA (and the DSA) are among the last bastions still standing at the moment, and that a possible Brussels Débâcle would carry profound, global implications. If we yield as Europeans, we yield also on behalf of all the other countries attempting to contain the power of the technological ogres. This Brussels Débâcle may take various forms and shapes. I do not expect a retreat, but I fear that the line may shift. Some impactful changes, adjustments and delays agreed behind closed doors, at the highest level of the Commission, remain invisible to us and significantly undermine the democratic position of us, the citizens of the European Union.

[In the meanwhile, Margrethe Vestager reacted to this frontal attack, among many others: serious stuff. And Teresa Ribeira too: strong words; Macron also onboard  ]