By Luciana Magalhaes
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 11 (Reuters) - The European Union and Brazil are signing a digital partnership, as the bloc seeks to deepen ties with more countries and reduce its reliance on U.S. technology, Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission tech chief, said on Thursday.
The partnership will focus on cooperation in areas such as data, connectivity, cybersecurity, and the protection of minors, Virkkunen, European Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy
told reporters on the sidelines of the Web Summit in Rio.
"That is something that we want to do with our trusted partners," she said. "Create better opportunities for businesses on both sides, especially now that we have the Mercosur trade agreement with Brazil."
Earlier this year, the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, formally signed a free trade agreement, opening up one of the world's largest free-trade zones.
Brazil will now become the fifth country to cooperate with the European bloc on digital issues, joining Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
Virkkunen is set to meet Brazil's Vice President Geraldo Alckmin later on Thursday, and continue meetings in Brazil's capital, Brasilia, on Friday to sign the agreement.
"Brazil is a country which shares very much the same values as the European Union," Virkkunen said. "So Brazil is committed to open markets, to secure technologies, also to a rules-based order," adding that the EU aims to work together to create human-centric technologies.
The EU, she said, wants to build partnerships because it knows no one can stay competitive alone. At the same time, it is working to reduce dependence in key areas such as chip manufacturing and cloud services, to avoid what she called "the kill switch element to our services."
The European Commission has just launched a tech sovereignty package with measures to bolster the EU's home-grown technology, including its cloud services.
She said the initiative comes as Europe relies heavily on three U.S. giants, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, which together control about 70% of its cloud market.
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Rio de JaneiroEditing by Nick Zieminski)
