“The single market remains one of the biggest opportunities for US companies”

A delegation from the Internal Market Committee (IMCO) was in the US capital this week to meet with US policy makers and stakeholders.

After the visit, Internal Market committee Chair and head of the delegation Anna Cavazzini (Greens/EFA, DE) said: “We have witnessed aggressive communication by US lawmakers and the Trump administration targeting our tech regulation. During our IMCO mission to Washington and our discussions with civil society and business representatives it became clear that these attacks are far from representative of the views ofthe majority of stakeholders, but rather only those of powerful tech giants in Silicon Valley. Their business model is based on toothless self-regulation, which is at odds with how we do things in Europe. In this spirit, we have seen for example that the US has removed all the guardrails on AI safety, which is very worrisome given the technology’s exponential development. Smaller US businesses confirmed that they benefit from the Digital Markets Act establishing conditions in the EU that are favourable to all market actors and incentivise innovation.

“As the first mission of the European Parliament to the US since the Trump administration took office, MEPs were able to clarify some misunderstandings with regards to our regulations. Our European laws are the result of a democratic process. There is a broad consensus that we cannot backtrack on our digital rulebook, made with the European citizens and businesses in mind and not to appease American ‘Big Tech’ oligopolies. Let us not forget: the single market remains one of the biggest opportunities for US companies, and a hostile approach therefore is not beneficial to either side. We already see member states calling for pushback to US pressure, in the form of anti-coercion measures or a digital tax.

“The meetings were overall constructive and while some differences remain it helped to keep dialogue and direct exchange open to broaden each other's understanding.”

Background

During their fact-finding mission MEPs met with members of US Congress, representatives from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the State Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the Technology Industry Council, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Chamber of Commerce, the Atlantic Council and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The objective of the mission was to gain insight into shared challenges in the areas of digital innovation, cybersecurity, fair competition, and to identify opportunities for transatlantic cooperation.The delegation learned about the effects of key EU tech laws on the ground, in particular the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. They also discussed other initiatives like the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act, Data Act and Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising, and discussed the plans of the new US government in these areas.

The delegation also consisted of Andreas Schwab (EPP, DE), Pablo Arias Echeverría (EPP, ES), Christel Schaldemose (S&D, DK), Klára Dostálová (PfE, CZ), Piotr Müller (ECR, PL), and Sandro Gozi (Renew, FR).