EU closes technological partnership with Brazil to reduce dependence on US giants

The European Union and Brazil will establish a digital partnership, in an initiative that is part of the bloc's strategy to expand cooperation with other countries and reduce its dependence on technologies developed in the United States. The information was announced this Thursday by an authority from the European Commission.
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The partnership will focus on areas such as data sharing, connectivity, cybersecurity and protection of minors on the internet. The announcement was made by Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, during the Rio Web Summit.
"This is something we want to do with our trusted partners," Virkkunen told journalists. "Create better opportunities for companies on both sides, especially now that we have the Mercosur trade agreement."
Earlier this year, the European Union and Mercosur - formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - formalized an agreement that creates one of the largest free trade areas in the world. With the new initiative, Brazil will become the fifth country to maintain a digital partnership with the European bloc, alongside Canada, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
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Virkkunen has meetings scheduled with Brazilian authorities this Thursday and Friday, including a meeting with vice-president Geraldo Alckmin. The expectation is that the technological partnership will be formalized during the visit.
"Brazil is a country that broadly shares the values of the European Union", said the European representative. "Thus, Brazil is committed to open markets, safe technologies and also to a rules-based order," he stated, adding that the EU intends to encourage the development of people-centered technologies.
According to Virkkunen, the European Union seeks to strengthen this type of cooperation as it considers that no country or bloc can maintain its competitiveness in isolation.
At the same time, it works to reduce dependencies in sectors considered strategic, such as semiconductor manufacturing and cloud computing services, avoiding what it classified as an "off button element of our services".
The European Commission recently launched a technological sovereignty package with measures aimed at strengthening the bloc's digital industry, including its own cloud computing services.
The initiative comes at a time when Europe still relies heavily on North American companies for this type of service. According to Virkkunen, Amazon, Google and Microsoft together account for around 70% of the European cloud computing market.
Lula meets with European Union representative in Rio de Janeiro
Ricardo Stuckert/ Presidency of the Republic

Source: G1