EU's mandate is creating a harmonized, balanced marketplace within it's collective borders, through regulation and incentives.
I think a more interesting point is how EU companies can hope to compete with the likes of Google if non-EU companies can effectively subsidise their EU operations by using revenue from more profitable markets. The EU is most certainly profitable to operate in, it is the wealthiest block on earth. It's just that margins are slimmer and cost of business is higher.
Heavy regulation of local comanies forces either heavy subsidies (basically all r&d in Europe is 50%+ subsidised) or a Chinese style blanket ban on competition.
I am both American and an EU citizen. While I love the United States dearly, I have a safer, more stable life working in the EU.
Outside of universal education and healthcare, my conclusion is that the value of the European tax dollar is unfairly distributed. At the local level, European grants and subsidies create jobs for educated people who chose the right course of study. At the Eurozone level, you have the northern "export based" economies essentially using a devalued currency to outcompete the southern countries. Relatively that means more tax dollars for the northern countries, when ideally those would be spread somewhat evenly across Europe.
I think Europe needs a technocratic tool that makes the economic performance of all countries everyone's problem. Denmark has an unemployment and retraining scheme called a-kasse that is reasonably well implemented. I could see a centrally funded, Europe wide implementation could be a solution.
It might allow the government to combine data it has on citizens with this data. On top of the fact that in that situation one single entity (the government) would see everything from everyone.
> why is it better that that control be in private hands?
That argument is not being made. But right now you got Apple and Google competing, and new players might compete with those two at some point to. If you got a government no one can compete with that controls this data on everyone (as opposed to it currently being split between two big providers).
Europe does not have the built-in distust of the governments that the US does but it's dangerous.
(A few years ago our conservative government sold it off because they are ideologically allergic to the idea, and/or they're just corrupt fucks in the pants of corporates)