"Sovereignty and the dignity of a great nation must be intangible," Charles de Gaulle once said to Franklin Roosevelt. In the era of the triumphant return of "America First" policies, what are European nations doing to emulate a model widely supported by public opinion and, above all, proven to be economically effective?
We propose a modern growth model adapted to the AI revolution, which we call the EDT model (Energy, Data, Taxes). Any European country could adopt this development framework. It is fundamentally based on three pillars: low-cost local energy sources (E), infrastructures adapted to the digital revolution in private and public sectors (including defense) (D), and favorable taxation (T) for this energy and data centers.
Exploiting Shale Gas
On the first pillar, while nuclear energy is necessary, it does not allow for rapid reindustrialization. A nuclear project takes between 15 and 20 years. European nations, including France and Germany, will need to exploit their shale gas reserves, for instance, to complement imports of American LNG. These proven reserves have never been utilized, and they will be essential, alongside coal seam gas, which is massively available in northern and eastern France.
Poland and England also have such resources, while Southern Europe must better optimize its solar energy. This energy renewal cannot wait for the 15–20 years required by relaunching major nuclear projects, especially since energy demands for the second pillar of the model—the presence of data centers on national soil to train and operate artificial intelligence—are both immediate and substantial.
Deregulating for Digital Growth
In our EDT model, each nation will need to establish data centers, AI research hubs, and engineering schools, in partnership with the private sector, to prepare for the advent of General Artificial Intelligence and super-intelligence in the next decade. We propose deregulating land acquisitions, permits, and authorizations and supporting construction industries, steel production, as well as expertise in industrial cooling, electronic optimization, and plumbing.
An Adapted Tax Policy
Finally, none of this will be possible without a tax policy tailored to these energy and digital projects. In the EDT-designated zones (EDT hubs), we propose eliminating all taxes on energy production necessary for these infrastructures, especially in countries like France, where production taxes heavily weigh on data centers and energy operations.
To achieve this, European nations—such as France, which inherited a welfare state with high taxation rates—will need to consider creating special regimes (free zones) to attract investments. The successful example of Sophia Antipolis, which in ten years created 13,000 jobs and generates €6 billion in annual revenue around R&D, shows the potential. What is missing is low-cost energy to incentivize massive investments in large, internationally scaled data centers with exponential potential.
Benefits of the EDT Model
Every nation would benefit from creating these EDT hubs with adapted taxation, centered on low-cost energy sources powering data centers critical to the AI revolution and other essential industries like defense. The EDT model still needs refinement with the help of economists, entrepreneurs, and public policy specialists. However, it represents a promising path in many ways: it generates growth (in a Europe where growth is stagnant), preserves independence and sovereignty (provided cheap energy is produced locally and sustainably), and immediately addresses the demands of the AI revolution.
"In the EDT zones, we propose eliminating all taxes on energy production necessary for these infrastructures."
About the Authors:
Randy Yaloz: Franco-American lawyer, president of Republicans Overseas Action, and visiting researcher at the Danube Institute.
Sébastien Laye: Entrepreneur, Franco-American economist, and economic policy advisor to Republicans Overseas France.