good morning. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni hopes to meet Donald Trump at the White House today and use their personal trust to jump EU trade talks that have failed to gain traction. Meanwhile, China is seeking a settlement with the EU to ease the blow of the trade war, but important hurdles remain.
Today, the EU’s most powerful party head has denied “structured cooperation” with the far right, and our tech correspondents report on the rise of their country’s European cloud companies.
Motivation centralism
The chief of the Central Right European People’s Party (EPP) vows to avoid cooperation with the far right of the European Parliament, promising to help his party defeat the “authoritarian waves” in Europe, writing Andy Bound and Alice Hancock.
Context: The centrist group, which last year voted for the EPP to set up candidate Ursula von der Leyen as chairman of the European Commission, denounced frequent support for positions shared with far-right patriots and nationalist European conservatives and reformists (ECRs).
EPP head Manfred Weber defended the group’s collaboration with sections of ECR, including the Italian brothers, the Belgian NVA and Czech ODS.
However, he denied “structured cooperation” between his party, the third largest party, and the patriots, including the party of Hungary’s Victor Orban and the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
“We guarantee that we do not have an official role in the European Parliament. The Cordon Sanitia is fully implemented,” Weber told FT in an interview.
He noted that many state leaders, such as Poland’s Donald Tass and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, face domestic competition from the right side rather than from the left.
In Berlin, Merz agreed to form a coalition government with the Social Democrats. Weber said cooperation with socialists in the European Parliament should also be improved.
Bavarian politicians said the drive and curb immigration of cutting the deficit in Brussels was essential to combating the populist threat, but Weber also complained that his former socialist allies in the European Parliament were not cooperating with the effort.
“We’re going to stop your ideological fight, come to the negotiation table and finally start talking about content,” Weber said.
One central official said that although “the cooperation is excellent” in open voting sessions, the EPP still regularly trades with the ECR and patriots at committee level and at closing meetings.
“We want to be constructive and contribute to the stability and predictability of our people and our businesses,” said a socialist spokesman. “This can only be achieved through (von der Reyen) majority, but not a myopic alliance with the far right,” they added, referring to the centric coalition between the EPP, socialist, green and liberal renewal.
You chart jar: take over
Santander overtook UBS as the most valuable bank in continental Europe after Trump’s tariff-induced market defeat hit Swiss lenders more vigorously than their peers.
cloudy
French cloud service provider Ovhcloud Benjamin Revcolevschi tells Barbara Moens that as European governments and businesses are increasingly looking at their own tech companies, they are looking at their own tech companies more and more.
Context: Europe has awakened a significant dependence on American digital infrastructure and services, leading to an increasing call for more technological sovereignty.
Cloud computing is one of the areas particularly dominated by the American giants, and Ovhcloud has demonstrated its position as a viable European alternative. And there is an increasing number of companies seeking public institutions to support European companies in their contracts.
In results released this morning, Ovhcloud announced a 10% increase in first quarter consolidated revenue compared to last year’s same period. Almost half of it comes from France, with other European countries accounting for 29%.
“Geopolitics has entered the boardroom,” Lebkolefusi told Fort.
He said Germany’s Commerzbank is one of the latest examples of a company that has switched to Ovhcloud to ensure data sovereignty.
Previously, data leaks and cybersecurity were often the main concerns of cloud services, Revcolevschi said. “Currently, businesses are aware that extraterritorial law or non-territorial decisions could affect cloud services, or that could lead to service closures.”
He said the global uncertainty over the past few months has helped spark debates over European digital sovereignty. “Sometimes you have to hit a wall to understand what’s going on, and that’s what’s going on today.”
What to see today
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets President Donald Trump in Washington.
French President Emmanuel Macron holds the envoy of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his envoy for the Middle East of Paris Steve Witcoff.
Please read these
Recommended newsletter
Free Lunch – A guide to discussions on world economic policy. Sign up here
British Nation – Peter Foster’s guide to the UK’s economy, trade and investment into a changing world. Sign up here
Are you enjoying the European Express? Sign up here to deliver directly to your inbox every day with 7am CET and noon CET on Saturdays. Tell us what you think, we love to hear from you: europe.express@ft.com. Keep up with the latest European stories @FTEurope
