Brussels becoming more supportive of Big Tech, says Booking CEO

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Here’s a scoop: Russia’s government has acknowledged that the fallout from the Ukraine war has hampered efforts to draw former Soviet nations closer into its orbit, according to a secret report seen by the Financial Times.

Today, one of Europe’s biggest tech companies tells our competition correspondent that Brussels is getting better at supporting the industry, and our Balkans correspondent unpacks yesterday’s election in Kosovo.

Business-forward

The new European Commission is trying harder to understand how to support the EU’s tech industry, according to Booking’s chief executive Glenn Fogel, as Brussels attempts to regulate innovation while closing the yawning economic gap with the US and China, writes Barbara Moens.

Context: Boosting domestic technology companies is seen as a key part of the push to improve the EU’s industrial competitiveness, which Ursula von der Leyen has made a key priority of her second term as commission president.

Brussels last month said it was “reassessing” certain regulatory probes into tech companies, following US President Donald Trump’s lambasting of EU tech rules. Today, von der Leyen will witness the launch of a €109bn AI initiative at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris, as Europe seeks a greater foothold in the fast-growing industry.

Fogel said there “has been a bit of a change from the previous commission in understanding: how can we best improve the tech ecosystem, and business in general, in Europe so that we can have this competitive environment as anywhere else in the world?”

Booking.com is the only Europe-based company designated as a so-called gatekeeper under the EU’s landmark digital rules, a label that imposes extra burdens. The online travel platform had already suffered a number of regulatory setbacks in the EU.

The CEO of Booking Holdings and of Booking.com, the US group’s Amsterdam-based subsidiary, stressed that the proof of the pudding would be in the eating, especially on creating a more business-friendly regulatory framework.

“We can’t be a regulatory power if we are not an economic power. And we are not an economic power right now,” Fogel said.

After meeting Brussels’ policymakers last week, he said: “There are key players that understand the challenge. Now, how we move from understanding the challenge and actually executing it and creating plans that work, that remains to be seen if it’s possible or not.”

Fogel hoped the new commission would focus on simplifying and clarifying the rules, and also urged Brussels to strike the right balance in regulating AI, after new guidance on its landmark AI Act was published last week.

“I believe part of the problem here in Europe is not allowing people to explore, experiment in advance. That sense of a brake on entrepreneurship does society no good,” Fogel said.

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Goodnight, Pristina

Elections in Kosovo have stripped Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling party of an outright majority, meaning that he could lose power to opposition parties that have vowed to replace him, writes Marton Dunai.

Context: Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 2008 and has fought to be recognised since. It has taken a hardline turn under left-wing nationalist Kurti, who has centralised control and alienated western allies that his country depends on for economic support and security.

Serbia rejects Kosovo’s statehood and supports ethnic Serbs who claim their own institutions in Kosovo. Kurti, in turn, rejects any parallel Serb bodies as a breach of Pristina’s sovereignty.

The impasse has hardened in recent years, as militant Serbs with links to Serbian premier Aleksandar Vučić clashed with Kosovo police, sometimes with deadly results.

With two-thirds of the votes counted,  Kurti’s party was on track to win 42 per cent of the vote, according to the country’s Electoral Commission, stripping him of an outright majority. 

Kurti has indicated he would not form a coalition with opposition forces, which would have enough votes to form a coalition without him. In that case, he would be forced to step down, with Bedri Hamza of the Democratic party likely to take the premiership.

The EU has stopped financial assistance to Kosovo following Kurti’s moves to unilaterally phase out Serb-issued documents, close down their post offices and ban usage of the Serb dinar currency.

Opposition parties are more amenable to Serb demands for more autonomy, and have criticised Kurti for alienating the west at a time when Kosovo’s integration into the EU and Nato are at stake, as well as regional stability.

What to watch today

1. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen attends AI summit with French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders in Paris.

2. European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde attends European parliament plenary session.

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