I'm seeing a lot of gung-ho enthusiasm for this move by the Dutch government, but what's the strategy here? Force China out whilst elsewhere the COM proposes trying to get Chinese firms to do tech transfer on EVs and batteries? I hope there's some serious cross European thinking behind this...

Finbarr Bermingham@fbermingham.bsky.social · 10mo ago

A quiet bombshell in Europe’s tech world The Dutch government seems to have effectively frozen operations of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker, citing national security, according to corporate filing today - via @zichenwanghere

I'm seeing a lot of gung-ho enthusiasm for this move by the Dutch government, but what's the strategy here? Force China out whilst elsewhere the COM proposes trying to get Chinese firms to do tech transfer on EVs and batteries? I hope there's some serious cross European thinking behind this...

Finbarr Bermingham@fbermingham.bsky.social · 10mo ago

A quiet bombshell in Europe’s tech world The Dutch government seems to have effectively frozen operations of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker, citing national security, according to corporate filing today - via @zichenwanghere

My new piece in @the-independent.com on the UK's tech prosperity deal: The deal does not only leave the UK even more dependent on US tech companies, it also once again shows how out of step the country is with tech sovereignty debates in the rest of Europe. www.independent.co.uk/voices/starm...

Starmer’s tech deal is a national security gamble – and ties us too closely to Trump

The rest of Europe is working hard to move away from dependence on US technology – particularly when it comes to AI, writes Katja Bego. But the UK is moving the other way for quick cash and false prom...

independent.co.uk

Great 🧵 on (one) DE view on industrial policy

Philipp Jäger@ph-jaeg.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The German scientific advisory board for economics published its take on EU industrial policy. Unfortunately, its conclusions are off the mark on three important issues: the appropriate role of the EU-level, the self-sufficiency of ETS, and declaring sectors as 'strategic'. Thread 🧵 (1/n)

What a sorry sign for European strategic automomy. Can it be that we cannot arrange for a European buyer to take over what's left of Northvolt? www.ft.com/content/10c5...

US battery start-up Lyten buys Northvolt out of bankruptcy

Californian company aims to make batteries for broader range of industries than just EVs

ft.com

Go no farther than today's FT opinion piece by Oren Cass to see this in action. According to Cass, Europe equals Germany, which must choose between bowing to the US or China.

Piero Castellano 🇪🇺@pierocastellano.com · last yr.

Many international actors struggle to see this about EU and its success. It can be a weakness when members in bad faith blackmail the EU above their size, but that's also a boomerang. When states seek bilateral deals with members "without involving EU" they fail to see that even Luxembourg IS the EU

Always amazed at Americans' ability to talk policy without it occurring to them to check if there are lessons from overseas. In this case to support the anti-abundance argument (see Starmer's popularity) or against it (has anyone bothered to check how eminent domain is doing in... Spain? France?)

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · last yr.

“Very few voters are actually going to notice the changes that Klein and Thompson suggest in their book.” www.liberalcurrents.com/abundance-do...

This is incredibly disturbing

Thorsten Benner@tbenner.bsky.social · last yr.

About time for German media outlets to get to the bottom of this story. theintercept.com/2025/03/31/g...

Wonderful rundown of problems with means testing from Amartya Sen 1) Information Distortion Any policing system to find welfare "cheaters" will result in some needy people missing out on benefits. This is a consequence of asymmetric information, it can't be fully eliminated

This was a lot of fun!

Chatham House@chathamhouse.org · last yr.

"Russia's pushing of the envelope when it comes to these hybrid attacks means that the Kremlin is playing with fire." Senior Research Fellow @katjabego.bsky.social joins the @wsj.com to discuss the allegations of sabotage in the Baltic Sea and Moscow’s hybrid war with NATO.