Is Meloni’s government striving for “technological sovereignty”: chips, drones and batteries produced in Italy?

By the voice of the new minister Adolfo Urso, the Meloni government has started outlining its strategy on the front of the digital and from technology. In an interesting interview with La Stampa, the former president of Copasir underlined the importance of opening a new season, emphasizing “technological sovereignty”.

Side note: Urso is Minister of Trade and Made in Italy. The Meloni government has put the Ministry of Innovation in the attic. The skills that once belonged to Colao will be unpacked between different and complementary departments.

“A lot can be done. The problem of technological sovereignty it has gained momentum in recent years and has literally exploded with Russi’s invasion of Ukraine,” said the minister Adolfo Urso.

Urso is well aware that dreaming of an Italian technological renaissance is fine, but this is a challenge that can only be won at the European level. And in this regard, he says: “We have to bring to the European continent when the economies of scale do not allow for a national solution.”

“I’m thinking about microchip made only in Taiwan, into drones, but also electric batteries for the cars of the future, or ai solar panelsAnd as Taiwan threatens to become yet another powder keg of global geopolitics (not only by freezing chip production, but also endangering relations between the West and China), all the more reason for a moving part of the production to Europe is a priority.

Then there is the question of the fundamental arsenal to win the battle for the ecological transition: solar panels, yes, but also batteries and batteries for zero-emission transport. Even these today come almost exclusively from China. “The ecological transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources cannot and should not mean Europe’s transition from a reliance on Russian gas to a new reliance on Chinese technologies,” Urso said. In short, technological sovereignty is not the autarchy of an operetta, but responds to the priority need to defend the European economy and prepare for the worst.