BRUSSELS, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Europe needs to pay at

least as much attention to self-driving cars as it does to

electric vehicles if it wants to play a role in one of the key

technologies of the next decade, the CEO of Estonian

ride-hailing and food delivery company Bolt said on Friday.

Europe's automakers, who employ millions across the

continent, are struggling to keep up with foreign technology

development, particularly by China and the United States.

"There's so much on EVs but we've lost the plot on

autonomous driving," Markus Villig, CEO of the European rival of

U.S.-based Uber ( UBER ), told a small group of journalists. "It

will be the core technology."

Autonomous driving is dominated by U.S. companies such as

Alphabet subsidiary Waymo and Tesla, and

Chinese competitors Baidu ( BIDU ), WeRide ( WRD ) and Pony.ai. Waymo plans to

launch autonomous ride-hailing in London next year.

Bolt stands to gain from the launch of "robotaxis", but

Villig said the European Union should recognise this as a

strategic technology, with security implications, and not just

rely on imports.

Villig, who was due to meet EU technology chief Henna

Virkkunen on Friday, said the EU was spending tens of billions

of euros on various parts of the EV supply chain, but nothing

comparable on self-driving software. Traditional carmakers might

provide some investment, but did not look set to build their own

self-driving systems.

The EU is keen to enhance its digital sovereignty, by

reducing Europe's reliance on U.S. Big Tech in cloud and network

services and artificial intelligence.

Villig said the EU also had to avoid allowing large foreign

players to come in and crush smaller local competitors, as had

happened in other tech areas. He suggested upcoming EU players

could be offered subsidies and perhaps provided exclusive

licences to operate robotaxis in specific cities or regions for

a certain period to allow them to build scale.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Emelia

Sithole-Matarise)