Comment by alephnerd

Because national interests always end up trumping the EU in it's current form.

American companies like Google [0][1], Amazon [2][7], and Microsoft [3][4][5][6] have spent billions in FDI and hiring, thus building strong relationships with EU states like Ireland, Romania, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and others, but French and German competitors haven't (or don't exist depending on the service or SLA).

This means a significant portion of EU member states have an incentive to maintain the relationship, because the alternative means significant capital outflows. A Polish legislator doesn't have to answer to French voters, so they will incentivize the relationship with BigTech. Thus, these nations will lobby tooth and nail against destroying the relationship.

It's the same reason Hungary courts Chinese FDI [8] and enhancing the Sino-Chinese relationship as leverage against the EU pushing too hard [9].

[0] - https://www.gov.pl/web/primeminister/google-invests-billions...

[1] - https://www.gov.ie/ga/an-roinn-fiontar-turas%C3%B3ireachta-a...

[2] - https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/job-creation-and-investment/...

[3] - https://centraleuropeantimes.com/microsoft-google-invest-big...

[4] - https://www.reuters.com/technology/nordics-efficient-energy-...

[5] - https://www.idaireland.com/latest-news/press-release/an-taoi...

[6] - https://www.government.se/articles/2024/06/prime-minister-to...

[7] - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/cloud-technology-emp...

[8] - https://hungarytoday.hu/hungary-seeks-to-stay-leading-europe...

[9] - https://theloop.ecpr.eu/hungary-and-the-future-of-europe/