[atoav]

It is decidedly not an anti tech sentiment that leads to this in my eyes. If I had to pinpoint it, I'd say it is a combination of these three points:

1) Europeans realised US corporations and special services won't stop spying on their allies and they will just ignore law and order

2) As the biggest single market on earth the EU has a strong leaver. A leaver which might be to the benifit of other smaller nations as well, so they feel morally obliged to use it

3) Contrary to a common image in the anglosphere the EU is not soley a economic pact, but there is a strong precence of shared values. So human rights, privacy rights of individuals, all that jazz. Not saying this is perfect or even at the level it should be, but it is more than a purely economical pact.

The idea that the EU was purely an economical alliance was a misconception that bit the UK as well during the Brexit negotiations. The UK negotiators couldn't get that there are ideas the EU isn't willing to sacrifice on the altars of commerce and capital.

[dalbasal]

I agree with the last point. On the first 2, I don't disagree, but I weight these lower than you in terms of what is driving this effort.

It's hard to know though. The way EU political culture works currently doesn't have "domestic politics" norms... which makes motivations hard to understand. That said, there is far more political attention on corporations spying or manipulating us than foreign countries spying or manipulating us.

In terms of the EU being powerful... I agree on paper. But, political culture isn't there atm. See the EU's handling of border issues: Ukraine and Belarus. There has been exactly zero "great power" MO on these. Imagine either of these if it was the US, China or Russia(1) border.

(1)You need to imagine Russia on both sides.

For good or ill, the EU doesn't have this kind of a political culture in 2020. Maybe it will. The material conditions exist. Currently though, it's a totally different beast to the US or China politically.

[growlist]

> The UK negotiators couldn't get that there are ideas the EU isn't willing to sacrifice on the altars of commerce and capital.

Well that's a very Brussels-centric picture that you paint, i.e., the glorious, righteous warriors of the EU leadership bravely defending Europe's morality against the terrible, beastly greed of perfidious Albion. However, from where I'm sitting it looks more like a demented quest for vengeance from an EU political leadership driven insane by the personal humiliation of losing one of the biggest members of the EU despite their best efforts and the stunning repudiation to their megalomaniacal globalist wet dream.