Strategic sovereignty has once again been at the center of the debate at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) as one of the main challenges today for Europe in the global technological race. Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom and Eutelsat agreed on the need to gain scale, simplify regulation and accelerate investment so as not to fall behind the United States and China.
The president of Telefónica, Marc Murtra, has defended that Europe needs gain scale, prioritize technology development and simplify its regulatory framework if it wants to preserve its strategic sovereignty in an environment of growing global rivalry: “We have to gain speed.”
“The reality is that “We have not seen changes in the regulation in the last twelve months”said the executive president of Telefónica. “Let us gain scale and we will invest in technology to offer more and higher quality services,” and Europe will improve its “technological sovereignty” against the dominance of large American and Chinese platforms.
The manager maintained that, if Europe does not want to depend on external suppliers and aspires to be sovereign, must develop its own digital products that are difficult to replicatesuch as advanced cybersecurity solutions, cloud hyperscalers, and artificial intelligence applications. “We can learn a lot from the Americans and Chinese,” he said.
For his part, the CEO of Eutelsat, Jean-François Fallacher, has indicated that Europe competes in an environment dominated by “giants”. Although he has highlighted the existence of solid companies on the continent, he has regretted the fragmentation among the Twenty-seven. In his opinion, It is essential to gain scale and mobilize public investment to develop sovereign capabilities that act as an alternative to the large American operators.
The CEO of Deutsche Telekom, Timotheus Höttges, has warned that Europe is losing competitiveness compared to the US and China. Furthermore, he has criticized that, far from being reduced, community regulation continues to increase, which generates frustration in the industry and makes market consolidation difficult. In his opinion, the historical and segmented design of the European sector prevents the sector from consolidating and being able to compete. “We are falling behind. Everything in the United States is working better than in Europe and I am jealous of them“, he assured.
Höttges has claimed a “deep cleaning” of the regulatory framework and greater political commitment to stimulate demand and facilitate investment in advanced infrastructure. Without a more favorable environment, he warned, the continent will continue to lag behind in innovation and technological development.