European technology is becoming political

Venture capital firm Atomico’s annual report on the state of technology in Europe reads: outside and shows that investments show an upward trend. But this 12 months’s edition goes beyond simply assessing the tech ecosystem; it has turn out to be a part of propaganda reflecting a broader change: European start-ups and investors are increasingly turning to lobbying.

“It’s no longer enough to show how far we’ve come. It’s also critical that we use these insights to show a way forward,” said report writer Tom Wehmeier, who is also a partner at Atomico and the firm’s head of intelligence. This includes 4 policy recommendations with fairly self-explanatory names: Fix Friction, Fund the Future, Empower Talent, and Champion Risk.

While Atomico uses responses from a broad range of respondents to support these specific recommendations, it likely has some authority to talk for greater than just itself. Founded in 2006 by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, its portfolio includes renowned European firms equivalent to Aiven, DeepL, Klarna, Pipedrive, Stripe and Supercell.

Taking a cue from Big Tech and legacy industries in addition to theirs peers from the USAEuropean technology firms of this scale are increasingly learning to lobby on their very own behalf – at company level, with public affairs staff, but also collectively, through open letters that have drawn the attention of European institutions.

This also explains why many of Atomico’s recommendations overlap with topics that are already very topical, each in the start-up community and in the Brussels policy world – whether it is the twenty eighth system proposed by the EU-INC supporter group to create a pan-European company structure (currently firms must navigate 27 different national systems), calls for less regulation or broader considerations on competitiveness, echoing the words of the former president of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi’s report for 2024.

This top-level support is also evident in the Atomico report. For the first time, the 2025 edition includes a quote from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said she wants “the future of artificial intelligence to be shaped in Europe.” This high-level attention also explains why European tech lobbying is becoming more sophisticated.

For example, on Regime 28, Atomico warns that it is very vital whether it’ll be a “regulation” or a “directive”. “This is the difference between having teeth and not having them, with the latter continuing a status quo where rules can be interpreted on a country-by-country basis rather than providing the uniformity necessary for tech companies to thrive,” the company argues. (In EU law, regulations are directly binding on all member states, while directives allow each country to implement the rules in another way.)

This level of detail is not unheard of. France Digitale, the French association of startups and investors, published “non-paper” on regime 28, which was not much different from what other lobbies might produce on other topics – identical to ESNA publicationsEuropean Alliance of Startup Nations. But Atomico’s version, also in the type of a video and a stage talk at the Slush tech conference, is intended to succeed in each the tech ecosystem and policymakers.

Paradoxically, what could also be missing is feeling different forces that may oppose efforts like EU-INC. More broadly, some recommendations could seem outdated to most individuals; after all, few Europeans get up in the morning frightened about the lack of latest domestic trillion-dollar firms.

The counter-argument is that weak growth rates affect society as a whole, but perhaps emerging European tech lobbying can do much more to win hearts. According to Alexandru Voic, head of corporate affairs and policy at London-based AI unicorn Synthesia, this is one of the the explanation why large startups are becoming more and more loud.

“Communication and politics are more important than they were 10 years ago because there is deep distrust of the tech industry in Europe,” Voica wrote to TechCrunch. “Ten years ago [communications] it was seen as something that could be missing from marketing to help with product development and brand awareness. Our work is now much more focused on risk mitigation, reputation management, etc.”

Lobbying by European technology firms also carries risks. If a movement becomes too closely associated with specific political parties, it could spark a backlash and undermine broader support. Still, no matter politics, many will likely agree with Atomico’s central point: “Europe is indeed at a crossroads.”