EU needs MORE regulation, not less - it only needs to be turned outward, rather than inward. Protective barriers against US / China big tech operators is the only way to native European tech companies can grow today. US is totally dominant on the globe with only China being able to produce comparable unicorns like Alibaba, WeChat, Huawei, TikTok none of which would have happened without the Great Firewall.

EU needs to the same and may actually get there if EU regulations continue to impose a cost on US / China big tech, such they may decide to withdraw services, establish a de facto firewall via a bramble bush of regulations

Ok. One can certainly ignore reality but it won't help employment or put food on the table. Have you ever actually read a regulation and then tried to comply your business with it? Protection from competition will cause Europe to wither further on the vine. It's not protectionism that's needed. It's freedom to innovate without hiring teams of lawyers and consultants before you hire your first programmer.

From the article (and this is just for IT): "European businesses spend 40% of their IT budgets on complying with regulations, according to a recent survey by Amazon. Two-thirds of European businesses don’t understand their obligations under the EU’s AI Act, which came into force last summer, the survey found."

Internal regs definitely need to go down, but external regs need to go up.

EU needs a firewall - it needed it in 2010 and it needs it in 2025. There is no chance for any EU based tech organisation to become competitive with US or Chinese apps without it. I consider this an unwelcome truth

As someone who worked in almost all industries/verticals, in the US, for over 35 years, to then retiring in Europe, I would say "so what"? When I look at what is truly more important, especially now that I have the time to learn and understand, where I am now (including really intensive work, to European standards - infra security for crypto, which I "tested" out of curiosity, for a few months, as a project, upon arrival), I'd say that not competing with the Joneses may not be that bad, after all. Let the Chinese and Americans rip each other apart, in the race for providing a path to transhumanism and whatever else Musk, Thiel, Andreesen and the rest of the gang are planning for themselves, while building the so much "envied" techno-feudalism for the rest, and rather enjoy the very little short time we have on Earth, to the maximum extent possible. Looking back, I deeply regret having missed a lot of things my new friends, of my age, cherish in their past, just to having made one order of magnitude more money than they did, while "enjoying" the heights of American techno. Race to the top? Or race to(wards) the/a bottom?