Letter: Brussels has surrendered its strongest negotiating cards

From Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris, France

Martin Sandbu rightly excoriates Europe’s supplication to Donald Trump (“Europe should embrace the idea of going it alone”, January 12). Yet his otherwise comprehensive indictment understates the most damaging self-inflicted wound: Europe’s voluntary surrender of its most powerful asset — regulatory autonomy. While Trump threatens Greenland and extracts tariff concessions, Brussels surrendered its strongest cards before sitting down to play. The commission has not only softened the terms of enforcement of its digital rule book against US tech giants, but has also launched an unprecedented regulatory rollback, gutting climate protections and pesticide safety standards, while postponing the implementation of the AI Act at America’s request. Yet, as Sandbu alluded to, the EU still has genuine leverage through its regulatory power to impose real costs on Silicon Valley’s profits in Europe. Sandbu asks what evidence is there that hitting back would cost more than submission. The answer: Europe hasn’t tried. Alberto Alemanno Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris, France