The Europe that protects

Many parents have faced the dilemma of how protective should they be of their children. Overprotective parenting may make them feel safe, however, on the long term, deprives the child of the ability to develop necessary skills that will help it to succeed in a competitive environment, educators say.

When last month the European Parliament adopted the new directive on intellectual property rights, it was yet another act of an overprotective parent called the State.

The text of the directive provides that sites such as YouTube and Facebook, that publish content created by their users, will now be co-responsible for any copyright infringement caused by said content. This new agreement is the continuation of the infamous GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) directive, which has been in force since last year. Its detractors say that this new legislative framework will create barriers to the free operation of the internet. Some even liken it to a censorship regime.

Adding to this is a series of measures aimed at preventing future acquisitions of European businesses by Chinese of US technological giants, as well as measures that will enable governments to subsidize companies of alleged strategic importance.

All these are mere manifestations of the same concept, called “l’ Europe qui protege” or “the Europe that protects” by its biggest proponent, France’s socialist president Emmanuel Macron.

Of course this is nothing new. The European continent has a long history of state interventionism and clientelism. However, nowadays Europe seems to be raising walls against anything new, not only to serve vested interests but rather as a result of populist policies that continue to gain momentum.

The effects on the competitiveness of the economy are more than obvious. It is telling that among the largest technology companies worldwide, only one is European.

Europe appears to be trapped in a vicious circle. It protects its economy and as a result it stays out of the competition race, it is marginalized, driven to introversion and to even more protectionism.

The more Europe continues to implement policies to that direction, the more it will look like an overprotective parent that refuses to face reality.