[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.