The problem is that every attempt at European alternatives is taken at the government level (of some member country or of the EU) and immediately announced with great fanfare as the European comeback. The pathetic thing about it is that everybody who isn't totally clueless sees how utterly inadequate these attempts are, given the political involvement, the microscopic resources invested, the lack of incentives from competition, and the general hostility of European legislation and bureaucracy. And yet politicians keep making fools of themselves announcing this or that EU answer to American tech.