EU Signs Digital Partnership with Brazil

The European Union signed a digital partnership with Brazil to strengthen ties on shared technology priorities. These include data governance, AI, digital infrastructure, connectivity, and online platforms.

The EU’s Digital Partnerships initiative is described as a core instrument of its external digital policy, enabling cooperation with like-minded countries on shared priorities. The agreement was signed in Brazil by Henna Virkkunen, EVP at the European Commission, and Brazil’s Secretary for Technology, Alex Giacomelli da Silva. Virkkunen said that the EU push to secure more digital cooperation deals is centered on a desire to reduce reliance on US technology.

“Brazil is a country which shares the same values very much as the EU. So Brazil is committed to open markets, to secure technologies, also to a rules-based order.” She added that the EU is looking to build partnerships because it cannot stay competitive alone, while working to reduce dependence on other nations for services including chip manufacturing and cloud. Brazil is the fifth country to partner with the EU on digital initiatives, joining Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Through the partnership. The EU and Brazil pledged to step up joint efforts to promote resilient global supply chains, contributing to an inclusive, rules-based system of global digital governance. It builds on an agreement struck in January to collaborate on data sharing after finding their protection levels were similar. This agreement allowed businesses, public authorities and researchers to freely exchange data between Brazil and the EU without additional requirements.

The Digital Partnership will now be implemented through dedicated technical workstreams and high-level exchanges. A meeting of the Digital Partnership Council will be held in the next 12 months, providing a strategic direction and joint roadmap for the partnership to move forward.