They can't be on friendly terms with the EU because this issue is being driven by internal EU politics and not really anything specific to tech. The poster abo

They can't be on friendly terms with the EU because this issue is being driven by internal EU politics and not really anything specific to tech. The poster above has it right. The EU's goal is to become a new country that eliminates the existing countries. To do that it must have either have its own tax base, or control the member states tax. It is working on both of those simultaneously, trying to control Ireland's tax policies, and also trying to treat fines on tech firms for vague anti-trust "violations" as a kind of taxation. Note that the EU Commission does not have to win in court to claim billion dollar fines, they can simply declare a fine by fiat, thus giving them a massive incentive to abuse their powers.