France's President Emmanuel Macron receives a glass of Estonian honey from Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid at Kadriorg Palace on the eve of the European Union Digital Summit in Tallinn on September 28, 2017 | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images Europe’s ‘e-believers’ brave skepticism in Estonia ‘Digital summit’ in Tallinn showcases East-West divide on priorities for tech policy in Europe.

TALLINN — Europe's high-tech horizon looks very different viewed from opposite ends of the Continent.

In Tallinn, where Estonian officials are hosting a digital summit on Friday as the centerpiece of their presidency of the Council of the EU, the vision is of a Europe in which the lives of citizens, businesses and government are transformed by data and connectivity. The tiny Baltic nation invited EU leaders here to preach its gospel of innovation, whether it is cashless payments in grocery stores; a sharing economy in which companies like Uber and Airbnb reinvent commuting and travel; or online public services that virtually eliminate queues, paperwork or the need to visit a government office.

The view, however, is far different in Western European capitals, where politicians appear to see technology as preying on society rather than transforming it for the better, and where the opportunities of digital life and commerce are more than offset by fears of privacy violations, cyberattacks, terrorism, job attrition and tax evasion. The aspirations are focused less on innovation than regulation and taxation.

In Berlin, Uber is essentially restricted to operating as a traditional taxi service; in London it was just banned. In cities including Barcelona, steps have been taken to restrict the use of Airbnb because of concerns that apartment owners are surrendering historic city centers to tourists.

In Strasbourg, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker used his State of the Union speech to declare that "New rules, put forward by the Commission, will protect our intellectual property, our cultural diversity and our personal data." And he promised to do more to stop cyberattacks. But Juncker said nothing about efforts to guarantee that data from self-driving cars and factory robots can flow across national boundaries. Advocates in Estonia and elsewhere say such a principle of free flow of data should be the EU's "Fifth Freedom," on top of goods, services, capital and people. Juncker did not offer any coherent digital vision out of Brussels — perhaps unsurprisingly, given that his aides think it's cute, not mortifying, that the EU's top leader still carries a flip phone.

Estonia wanted to use the digital summit to generate enthusiasm for its tech vision among EU leaders, but in an illustration of just how big a split exists on tech, European Council President Donald Tusk made only a passing reference to the so-called digital single market in his letter framing the discussion for an informal leaders' dinner on Thursday.

Having wrested control of the dinner from Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas to ensure there was no focus on Brexit, Tusk planned to first give the floor to Emmanuel Macron. The French president arrived in Tallinn not with enthusiasm for Estonia's agenda but with his own: a plan to impose a new tax regimen on digital giants like Amazon and Facebook that he was going to push on the sidelines of the official forums Friday on "e-government" and "the future of economy and society."

An EU official suggested leaders had more pressing issues to discuss than Estonia's digital agenda, such as Macron's broad visions on the future of Europe. The official laughed off the issue of data flows, as if it referred to bathroom plumbing.

"This is not something where Macron would propose an ambitious project," the official said. "Maybe Ratas will have his Macronian moment if he says, 'I invite all of those who wish to enhance the competitiveness of Europe to embark on the free-flow of data initiative for the Fifth Freedom.'"

Klen Jäärats, Estonia's director of EU affairs, said he recognized there were many legitimate concerns in Western capitals about the societal disruption being caused by technology, including questions about tax laws, labor protections and social policy. But Europe risks losing out to global competitors if it does not embrace Estonia's enthusiasm for innovation, a result that would leave no one laughing, said Jäärats.

"If you see the big numbers, the big numbers of who is investing in the latest technologies, who is getting the top talent, what are the biggest internet companies, and by market cap there is no European company in the top 20," he said. "In e-commerce, you see a lot of Chinese and American companies dominating the market, so in that sense, I would be rather worried."

The fear of change in some European countries is overblown and blinds them to the opportunities of a Continent-wide embrace of new technologies, said Viljar Lubi, Estonia's deputy secretary-general for the ministry of economic affairs and communications.

"They’re not pessimists because they don’t see the potential of digital," Lubi said. "They just exaggerate the risks. But this is life, anyway. Things are going online. It is happening and you need to be ready for that.”

Lubi said Estonia and other smaller, newer EU members are less afraid of radical change because they don't have entrenched analog interests.

“Estonia doesn’t have a legacy issue," he said. "We didn’t have strong traditions in any part of the economy. We wanted to do everything differently. The more different the better.”

Even if Macron and Merkel are focused elsewhere, now is Estonia's single best chance to inject some courageous thinking into Western Europe's old, comfortable habits.

Erki Koort, Estonia's deputy secretary-general for internal security policy, insisted his country is happy to be Europe's tech apostle, even if skepticism persists: "We are the e-believers.”