Wake-up call from industry: Tech giants demand EU AI policy course correction

In the EU, pressure is growing on political decision-makers to realign European digital policy. According to sources in Brussels, the stalled negotiations on the so-called AI Omnibus are set to continue this Wednesday. Last week, an agreement still seemed a long way off. Observers expected a stalemate. But now, representatives from the EU Commission, Parliament, and Council are returning to the negotiating table surprisingly quickly.

The process begins on Wednesday morning with the meeting of the Member States in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), where a new negotiating mandate is to be established. If a breakthrough is achieved here, the new trilogue could start just a few hours later.

In line with this, seven European technology leaders have spoken out to jointly draw attention to the looming dangers of progressive deindustrialization due to bureaucratic hurdles. In their open letter, the CEOs of heavyweights such as Airbus, ASML, Ericsson, Mistral AI, Nokia, SAP, and Siemens paint a bleak picture: Europe is losing global competitiveness daily. This is not just an economic footnote, but an existential crisis that threatens the continent's social cohesion and technological sovereignty.

Call for “flexible guardrails”

The industry giants are demanding a radical simplification of digital regulations. Instead of getting lost in rigid, fragmented specifications, regulations should function as agile and flexible guardrails in the future. Only these could keep pace with technological development. The CEOs are particularly critical of the EU's tendency to stifle innovations in the bud before they can be scaled. Europe has been lost in debates about regulatory details for years. The rest of the world has long since shifted its focus to the practical application of AI in physical systems and robotics.

The signatories, including Christian Klein of SAP and Roland Busch of Siemens, sense the next wave of innovation primarily where digital capabilities meet the real world. That is, in industry, infrastructure, and transportation. To create added value here, policymakers must ensure that industrial AI applications can be developed without overlapping hurdles and bureaucratic double structures. The goal is to effectively utilize data spaces and consistently protect intellectual property rights, rather than placing obstacles in companies' paths through complex laws.

Voices from the other side

The TÜV Association, meanwhile, advises against undermining the horizontal approach of the AI Act. A uniform regulation of high-risk AI across different product groups is the core of the regulation. According to the testing experts, a retreat into sectoral individual provisions would lead to a regulatory vacuum and a new patchwork. This would rather weaken Europe as an industrial location. Furthermore, the continent would miss the opportunity to establish European standards as a global benchmark for trustworthy AI.

A central point of industrial criticism remains the fragmentation of the European market. The CEOs are therefore also calling for closer integration of European policy with national strategies and a reform of competition and merger law. Only in this way can the necessary consolidations and economies of scale be achieved to remain competitive on a global scale.

(wpl)