Brussels is reassessing its investigations into tech giants, including Apple, Meta, and Google, as US companies call on President-elect Donald Trump to intervene against what they describe as “overzealous” EU practices.

The review, which could lead the European Commission to narrow or change the scope of investigations, will cover all cases opened since March last year under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), two officials briefed on the matter told the Financial Times (FT).

The decision comes as the Brussels institution begins a new five-year term amid mounting pressure on its handling of landmark cases and as Trump prepares to return to the White House.

“It’s going to be a whole new ball game with these tech oligarchs who are so close to Trump and are using that to pressure us,” said a senior EU diplomat familiar with the review. “A lot is unclear at the moment,” he added.

Officials stated that all judgments and possible fines will be paused while the review is finalized, but technical work on the cases will continue. Some investigations are in early stages, while others are more advanced. Charges were expected to be filed last year in an investigation into alleged favoritism of Google’s app store.

Two other EU officials said regulators in Brussels were awaiting political instructions to take final decisions on the Google, Apple, and Meta cases.

The review comes as EU lawmakers urged the Commission to remain steadfast in the face of US pressure, while Silicon Valley executives hailed Trump’s return as the start of an era of lighter tech regulation.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently called on the president-elect to stop Brussels from fining US tech companies, complaining that EU regulators have forced US firms to pay “more than $30 billion” in fines over the past 20 years. Zuckerberg, who recently announced plans to remove the verification mechanism on Facebook and Instagram—potentially flouting EU rules—expressed confidence that the incoming Trump administration would protect American interests abroad.

While one official acknowledged that Trump’s presidency was a factor in the review, they insisted that his victory had not triggered it. The Commission stated it remains “fully committed to the effective implementation” of its rules.

A Commission spokesperson explained that ongoing cases are “not yet ready at a technical level,” emphasizing that such investigations take time due to their complexity, novelty, and the need to ensure legally sound decisions.

Before Trump’s victory, EU regulators had taken aggressive action against the world’s largest tech groups, implementing reforms aimed at opening markets and creating a regulatory framework for Big Tech. Under the DMA, Brussels launched investigations into Apple, Google, and Meta last March.

The Commission also faced pressure to use the full powers of the DMA, a set of rules aimed at policing online content, to curb the growing influence of tech billionaire Elon Musk in European affairs.

Current investigations include whether Apple favors its own app store and whether Meta uses personal data for advertisements, alongside a similar probe into Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Brussels is also consulting Apple’s competitors on proposals to harmonize the tech group’s iOS operating system with connected devices.

Danish Margrethe Vestager and French Thierry Breton, both known for their hardline stance against US tech companies, resigned from the Commission in November.

One official told the FT that priorities may be shifting, noting that the digital rules were inherited from the previous Commission. “There may be a political reality [in the US] that is putting pressure on the technical work… we will look and assess based on concrete measures and actions of the new [Trump] administration,” the Commission’s chief spokesperson said.

EU lawmakers, however, urged regulators to stand firm. Stephanie Yon-Courtin, a Member of the European Parliament involved in drafting the tech rules, stated that EU investigations cannot be sacrificed to avoid diplomatic backlash.

In a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Yon-Courtin emphasized that the DMA must not be “taken hostage” and requested reassurance that the Commission remains committed to its effective implementation without delay.

Friedrich Merz, the politician likely to become Germany’s next chancellor, has vowed to restore Germany’s industrial competitiveness by putting climate policy on the back burner.

In a campaign speech in the western industrial city of Bochum on Monday, Merz, leader of the CDU, stated that Germany’s economic policies under Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been “almost entirely oriented towards climate protection.” He added, “I want to say this clearly: We will and must change that.”

Germany’s traffic-light coalition government, which collapsed in November over differences of opinion on spending and economic reforms, had pledged to “ideally” phase out coal by 2030, eight years ahead of the official target date. To achieve this goal, the coalition, which included Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, greatly expanded renewables and subsidized energy-intensive companies to help them achieve climate neutrality.

As a result, Germany is the European Union’s industrial leader in the production of green infrastructure, with the largest number of plants for solar and wind technology. In heat pump production, it has the second-largest number of plants, behind Italy.

However, Merz suggested that he would radically change course. Referring to both coal and nuclear power during his speech, he argued that they had “agreed enough” in recent years on which energy source to phase out, but that decommissioning was out of the question unless there was “something to replace it.”

“If we continue to do so, we would greatly jeopardize Germany as an industrial center, and we are not prepared to do that,” Merz said.

Merz and his conservative alliance CDU-CSU are likely to win the early elections on 23 February, with 31 percent support in the polls. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is in second place with 21 percent support. However, since Merz has closed the door to an alliance with the AfD, he may have to form a coalition with the SPD and the Greens, who oppose his economic policies.

During his visit to Bochum, Merz also expressed skepticism about the previous government’s focus on “green steel”—steel mills powered by hydrogen from renewable energy—and told a panel that he “does not believe that the rapid transition to hydrogen-powered steel mills will be successful.”

ThyssenKrupp, once the national steel giant, received around €2 billion in state subsidies in 2023 to accelerate its shift away from CO2-emitting production by replacing its coal-fired steel furnaces with new hydrogen-fired ones.

In Bochum, Merz proposed carbon capture instead of completely avoiding emissions from steel mills with hydrogen. His main concern with hydrogen from renewable sources is cost. However, experts warn that carbon capture, an electricity-consuming technology, also has a high price tag and is not yet available on the scale needed to decarbonize the steel industry.

Robert Habeck, the Greens’ candidate for prime minister, disagreed with Merz’s comments about hydrogen-powered steel mills. “No one should believe that coal-fired electricity and coal-powered steel still have a chance on the world market,” Habeck told reporters on Tuesday.

SPD leaders also criticized Merz. Anke Rehlinger, premier of the southwestern state of Saarland, where the steel industry is a key sector, told the German daily Stern that anyone who wanted to back down now would destroy billions of euros in investments and tens of thousands of jobs.

NATO will deploy maritime drones, submarines, ships, and aircraft to detect and prevent sabotage attempts against critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. This decision comes after several power pipelines and data cables were damaged in recent months.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced the new mission, dubbed Baltic Watch, on Tuesday. The announcement followed Finland’s seizure of a ship belonging to Russia’s “shadow oil tanker fleet,” which is suspected of damaging submarine power cables last month.

During a meeting with officials from the Baltic Sea region in Helsinki, Rutte stated, “This is all about protecting critical submarine infrastructure. Whereas in the past we have discussed cyberattacks, sabotage, and energy blackmail as separate actions, what we want to show today is that NATO, together with our allies, will ensure our deterrence is in the right place.”

Over the past 15 months, three ships in the Baltic Sea have allegedly damaged underwater cables and pipelines by dragging their anchors on the seabed. This has prompted countries such as Sweden and Estonia to increase their maritime patrols.

NATO’s multinational troop groups are already deployed and reinforced in each of the three Baltic states. Additionally, NATO has been conducting an air policing mission over the region for an extended period.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times (FT), Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen noted that the likelihood of all three ships accidentally damaging underwater infrastructure was “close to zero.”

According to open-source intelligence experts, several ships from the Russian shadow fleet have exhibited “strange behavior” in the Baltic Sea and near Denmark. These ships have repeatedly crossed pipelines and experienced multiple breakdowns, raising concerns about potential accidents, further sabotage, or environmental disasters.

Rutte and other leaders praised Finland’s response to the latest sabotage suspicions. Last month, Finland helicoptered out and seized the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S tanker, which was carrying oil from Russia to Egypt.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who hosted the NATO meeting in Helsinki, revealed that a group of legal experts from the Baltic Sea states has been established. Their goal is to explore ways to restrict the freedom of navigation for ships belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet under international maritime law.

Valtonen acknowledged that “it is difficult to completely block the shadow fleet from the Baltic Sea” due to constraints imposed by international maritime law. However, she added that there are possibilities for “defense of territorial integrity or sovereignty.”

Stubb also highlighted a Finnish law that authorizes emergency action when an environmental disaster is feared.

Rutte declined to provide specific details on the number of ships, aircraft, submarines, and drones to be deployed, noting that these figures could change over time.

Sweden announced over the weekend that it would contribute up to three warships to the mission.

“The important thing is that we use the right military assets in the right places at the right time to deter destabilizing actions in the future,” Rutte emphasized.

Germany is also participating in the NATO mission with significant Bundeswehr capacity. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated at the Helsinki meeting, “We will participate with all the naval capabilities we have.”

The naval operation is being coordinated by a special staff at the Naval Command of the German Armed Forces in Rostock. The mission aims to deter saboteurs or, at the very least, ensure that sabotage operations can be investigated quickly.

“So that we can not only monitor but also take action,” Scholz said. He added that “additional possibilities within the framework of EU and national legislation” should be created, if necessary, to take action against suspicious vessels outside national waters.