Europe always was and must remain open

In recent policy documents, the European Commission often reflects on the concept of open strategic autonomy. This is the case especially in the proposal for revision of the EU trade strategy but also in the recently updated industrial policy. Europe has always been an open market and it has always been a strong competitive advantage of the single market.

However, given the global situation in recent years, the European Commission had to adopt the open strategic autonomy concept. While the words “open” and “autonomy” may sound contradictory, for the Commission the concept means acting together wherever possible and acting alone when necessary. The principle of openness is more and more important also for the digital agenda.

Therefore, 16 European business federations from 11 countries, including the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, issued a joint statement that calls on the European Commission and European leaders to strive for open strategic autonomy. According to the federations, the EU should pursue secure ambitious rules on digital trade and data flows in free trade agreements with EU’s trading partners and in the WTO negotiations on e-commerce. EU trade policy trade policy should further promote Europe’s interests in industrial and services sectors and avoid protectionist tendencies that are likely to have a detrimental impact, not only on the European economy, but also on the global influence of the EU.

Furthermore, the EU should develop cooperation with partners that share the same values and standards in the areas like data protection, security and privacy. On the other hand, the EU must have adequate mechanisms to cope with possible situations of economic and political coercion. For these, the EU should have a strong competition policy in place that would lower the risk of creating dependencies on few suppliers of strategically important products and technologies. In this context, the strategic role of WTO is of utmost importance, both in harmonizing international trade rules and setting global standards.