But Zaharieva, who visited Silicon Valley last week, insisted the bloc should still pursue close collaboration with its partners on the other side of the Atlantic.
“In the geopolitical situation, you see how fragile the supply chains are, but they are also very complicated,” she said.
The commissioner noted the EU has been pursuing a strategy of partnerships with “like-minded countries” through free-trade agreements, among them India and the Mercosur bloc of South American nations.
“This doesn’t mean to close our economies,” she said.
Technology ties between Brussels and Washington have grown tense over the past year, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and tech executives lashing out against the EU’s tech rulebooks, which they claim impose censorship and unfairly target American companies.
Zaharieva offered a different perspective on those transatlantic ties, saying some U.S. tech executives like Jensen Huang, CEO of AI chipmaker Nvidia, still see value in working with Europe.