The recent move by Microsoft to block the email account of Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has sparked heightened concern across Europe regarding digital sovereignty. The incident has underscored the national security risks posed by Europe's heavy reliance on U.S. tech companies. The Trump administration's series of policies have further strained the foundation of transatlantic digital economic cooperation—namely, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF)—pushing Europe to launch a digital sovereignty campaign and accelerate its efforts to reduce dependency on American cloud services. In response, European countries have turned to legislation, market initiatives, and the promotion of projects like the The European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services (EUCS) in an attempt to build domestic digital infrastructure and lessen reliance on U.S. technologies. This article argues that the Trump administration's actions have fundamentally eroded the trust underpinning the DPF. The chain reactions within European political and business circles highlight a sobering reality: technical fixes cannot mend deep institutional rifts. If the two sides fail to rebuild consensus amid ongoing political disagreements, the transatlantic data transfer framework may face deeper strategic decoupling—consequences that would extend far beyond privacy concerns alone. Whether such a decoupling can be reversed will depend on whether the EU and the U.S. can reestablish a foundation of cross-border institutional trust amid an increasingly volatile political landscape. 

Translated by Andeez Zlauddln

Full text in Chinese available at:

https://fddi.fudan.edu.cn/35/df/c18965a734687/page.htm