Europe is breaking its reliance on American science
22 comments
·August 4, 2025vouaobrasil
I think it makes sense. Europe and other countries need to boycott the US based on how the US is negatively affecting the world and driving consumption. Similar to how many countries boycotted Russia.
tharne
Lol, I'll believe it when I see it. Is this the same Europe that despite everything going on in the world is:
- Still buying Russian gas
- Dependent on U.S. Military bases for their own security
- Dependent on Chinese manufacturing for consumer goods
- Dependent on the U.S. for software and cloud infrastructure
- Dependent on the Chinese for computer hardware
Best of luck Europe, you've had a good run, but you've gotten yourself into a fine mess here.
givemeethekeys
Yeah, just like they're breaking their reliance on the American military /s.
surfsvammel
Yes. Very similar actually. Most of Europe is increasing spending on military defence.
givemeethekeys
*Most of Europe has promised to do something... in the glorious future, where anything is possible. Anything at all!
seydor
By promising to buy more american weapons, more american LNG and investing in american companies.
We europeans are having a really hard time breaking our US addiction. I mean what are we even doing in here
jltsiren
Those "promises" were meaningless BS. Every European should know that the EU cannot make such promises, because it has no power in those matters. Defense policy is up to the member states, while investments and energy purchases are mostly made by private entities.
bpodgursky
Europe is deciding that US technology addiction is better than Russian subjugation.
It's not a time to be playing political games buying sub-par weapons. Bad for Saab, but that's reality. The world is dangerous again.
xyzzzzzzz
So they finally are doing what trump asked them to do?
whynotmaybe
No, they've been doing it since Russia's war in Ukraine.
3 days after the start of the invasion, Germany announced a €100 billion increase to military spending.
inejge
Those things take time and have an inertia in both branches: it's easier to continue using the existing resources than standing up your own, but once you're committed to developing a replacement it's not easy to stop.
(EU already did it, however partially, with its own satellite navigation system.)
richwater
> The United States funds 57% of Argo's $40 million annual operating expenses, while the EU funds 23%.
Why the hell is the US on the hook for practically 2/3rds the cost of a system that monitors the entire worlds' ocean?
perihelions
$820 billion in hurricane damages since 2016, and the cost center we should focus on is some $40 million/year spent researching causes of that? That's roughly similar in proportionality—and in reasoning—to a datacenter deleting its smoke detectors. (If that is what you want for steep discounts, there is OVH).
https://www.wunderground.com/article/storms/hurricane/news/2...
bryanrasmussen
1. Why should the EU monitor the Pacific? The Pacific is big.
2. The EU claims the EU as its sphere of influence. The U.S claims The U.S and Central and South America by virtue of the Monroe Doctrine.
3. The U.S wanted to be in charge and be big and important, so if you want to be big and important you gotta do more.
4. The EU has military bases in the EU and the waters which touch the EU. The U.S has a military presence in every Ocean of the world.
azinman2
> The EU has military bases in the EU and the waters which touch the EU. The U.S has a military presence in every Ocean of the world.
UK/France and I’m sure others have bases all over the world.
nosianu
But that is their business and not the EU. And I have no idea why you included the UK anyway - not in the EU.
Here is a list, by the way: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/overseas-...
zekrioca
It is one of the side effects in terms of costs that a country has in order to enable the safe flow of global trade.
lawlessone
Because they chose too?
It more than likely has uses in defence?
Hegemony isn't free.
null
epistasis
Why the hell should I have to live a worse life with more storm damages, less military preparedness, etc. etc. etc. just because sycophants are willing to make up ridiculous excuses for extremely unwise decisions? Such is the pain of democracy, while we still have one.
Well, that seems like a rational response to the fact that the US is in the process of killing science in the US.