Europe and the US are not sovereign either.
In recent months we have witnessed some shifts in European policies. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that there will also be changes in some US policies. In both blocs, the principle of reality prevails over ideology and promises made: deviating too much from global trends makes survival difficult.
In the field of data protection and artificial intelligence, in November 2025 the European Commission proposed the Digital Omnibus, which aims to "simplify and harmonize" EU digital laws (General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR, AI law, data law, and ePrivacy Regulation). The stated objectives include reducing the regulatory burden on businesses, creating one-stop shops for reporting cyber incidents, clarifying definitions, and promoting innovation without compromising EU ethical standards. For example, in certain situations, pseudonymous data will no longer be considered personal data (particularly if the data controller does not have access to the correspondence between pseudonyms and identities); the notion of "legitimate interest" will be introduced as a legal basis for processing personal data to train AI models; the consent required by the GDPR for accepting cookies will be simplified, and so on. This proposal will be debated in the European Parliament during 2026.
Outside the digital realm, policies affecting the physical world are also undergoing significant changes. Regarding the energy transition, the EU has backtracked on its initial plan to ban the sale of combustion engine cars from 2035. Manufacturers will be allowed to sell a limited number if—and only if—they also offer small, affordable electric cars or use materials with a low carbon footprint. Migration policy is also being completely reversed: the initial rejection by the 27 member states of the creation of deportation centers outside the EU has become a majority endorsement in less than two years. In the area of defense, the generally pacifist positions of the member states have quickly shifted towards the integration of traditionally neutral countries (Sweden and Finland) into NATO, a substantial increase in arms spending, and a partial reinstatement of conscription in some countries.
The European changes in data protection and AI are certainly due to persistent pressure from across the Atlantic. But they also stem from the attempt to give breathing room to the European digital industry, which is striving to gain ground, as well as from the needs of research, for example in the healthcare sector, where the use of pseudonymized data is commonplace and necessary to monitor patient progress. The changes in the energy transition are similarly explained by business pressures, in this case from European car manufacturers, but also by the slowness of government agencies in promoting the deployment of a charging network as dense and user-friendly as the network of gas stations. The changes in migration and defense policies are occurring because the world is not as the EU would like it to be or as it had imagined it. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to asylum, the vast majority of current immigration is economic and not requested by the receiving countries. If Europe trusted the US for its defense, it now turns out that the US has grown tired of it and could even attack the territory of an EU state.
The US will also have to make changes if it wants to compete with China. China is the world's second-largest economy, its technological level is already very close to that of the US, and its population is more than four times that of the United States. The only way the US can maintain its leadership is by continuing to "dope" itself by attracting the best foreign talent, as it has always done. If the restrictions on technology visas announced by the US administration to appease its electorate manage to disrupt the influx of talent, China will soon become the world's leading power. Likewise, if the US wants to continue enjoying the "exorbitant privilege" of having the dollar as the global reserve currency, it must respect the independence of the Federal Reserve and its governor.
Europe is abandoning certain progressive policies. But the US will also have to abandon some policies inspired by the MAGA movement. The common thread is that neither bloc can afford to act in isolation from the rest of the world. We are discovering that not only are European nation-states too small to implement the policies their voters demand, but even large blogs, which we thought were more sovereign, are struggling to do so. This illustrates the limits of what democracies can offer their citizens in our globalized world.
