NORTHWOOD, England — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron unveiled a highly-anticipated “one in, one out” pilot program to tackle illegal migration on the final day of French president’s visit to the United Kingdom. At a joint press conference Thursday, the British leader said that the “groundbreaking” effort would see the U.K. return migrants to France that have illegally crossed the English Channel. In exchange for each returned migrant, France will transfer one asylum seeker to the U.K who would be expected to have a family connection or genuine reason to seek sanctuary in Britain. French border forces will also be able to take proactive measures to stop boats in shallow waters, subject to a review by the French maritime authorities.  “We simply can’t solve a challenge like this by acting alone, and telling our allies that we won’t play ball,” Starmer said. The prime minister said the plan would “break the model” of people smuggling despite the relatively modest scale of the program, while Macron said he believed it would deter would-be smugglers and migrants seeking to make the perilous journey. It is not known how many would be returned under the program, but initial reports have suggested around 50 migrants could be sent each way per week — only a fraction of the 21,000 who have arrived via the Channel so far this year. Still, the U.K. prime minister pledged “hard-headed, aggressive action on all fronts, to break the gangs’ business, secure our borders and show that attempting to reach the U.K. will end in detention.” DOMESTIC PRESSURE Starmer is under acute pressure to reduce levels of illegal migration, having promised to “smash the gangs” when he came to power last year, and with Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party on the rise. When asked about whether the pilot program spearheaded by the two centrist leaders was ambitious enough, Starmer took a direct dig at Farage, saying he had been “working hard” to get an agreement “while others have been taking pictures of the problem.” Though the issue of cross-Channel migration is less politically sensitive for Macron than Starmer, the French president agreed that the arrival of the so-called small boats was “an essential issue” for both countries and vowed to reinforce efforts “on several fronts.” Macron, however, warned that the agreement over pilot scheme would be signed after judicial checks had been done, including with the European Union, and argued Brexit had in fact made illegal crossings more attractive for migrants, despite Brexiteers promising otherwise. Keir Starmer is under acute pressure to reduce levels of illegal migration, having promised to “smash the gangs” when he came to power last year. | Pool Photo by Andy Rain via EPA The press conference marked the conclusion of Macron’s state visit this week, during which the two leaders repeatedly went to great lengths to stress their personal friendship as well as the historical ties between their two countries. The two leaders also confirmed their refresh of the Lancaster House treaties and unveiled what they called the Northwood Declaration, under which they will be able to coordinate their nuclear deterrents. They also announced a new “multinational force Ukraine” based in Paris “to support a peace deal when it comes while Putin turns his back on peace.” The two leaders said their countries would also strengthen collaboration on supercomputers, satellite connectivity and work on seizing the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.

BRUSSELS — The European Union wants to speed up quantum computing, but cybersecurity officials warn that it comes with a gargantuan risk: an impending quantum security doomsday. The European Commission on Wednesday warned that Europe has fallen behind the United States and China in rolling out the technology, in a new quantum strategy aimed at drawing investment and turning the bloc’s know-how into an economic advantage. Quantum computing is seen as the next frontier in technology. Its capabilities surpass those of existing supercomputers, enabling it to solve problems in areas ranging from drug discovery to battery technology, as well as communications and navigation tech for defense and space. However, it also presents a big problem for cybersecurity. Modern-day digital communications, internet traffic and data collections are secured using a system called public key cryptography, which relies on complex mathematics that regular computers can’t solve. But quantum computers — which are many times more powerful than today’s computers — could crack those codes easily, experts have warned. “Everything breaks,” said Nigel Smart, a professor with the computer security and industrial cryptography department at KU Leuven, a Belgian university. “Your phone, the internet, everything breaks. Not break as in doesn’t work, breaks as in, it’s not secure.” Once quantum computers reach the inflection point, it would effectively mean that most of today’s data zooming around on internet wires would be readable to anyone tapping in. A particularly eerie problem is what’s known as “store now, decrypt later,” where threat actors — notably intelligence agencies — take data that’s encrypted with public key cryptography, retain it and then unlock it once quantum computing technology is sufficiently advanced. The challenge for European countries will be to defend themselves against these emerging threats — or else fall prey to foreign spooks, cyber crooks and hackers. The European Union warned in its quantum strategy on Wednesday that the bloc is at risk of seeing promising homegrown quantum tech firms falling into the hands of foreign players. Europe is the global leader in the number of scientific publications on the technology, but private investment has mostly gone elsewhere: Europe attracts only 5 percent of global private quantum funding, compared to over 50 percent by the U.S. and 40 percent by China, according to the EU’s calculations. The details of the strategy were first reported by POLITICO. 2030 DEADLINE In parallel with the Commission’s grand plan to speed up on quantum, European authorities have been developing guidelines to mitigate the risks of encryption being broken. Cybersecurity authorities released a roadmap last month to transition to post-quantum cryptography, a type of algorithm that could resist quantum computers. It suggested that EU countries protect critical infrastructure with post-quantum cybersecurity by the end of 2030 — a deadline first reported by POLITICO. U.S. tech giant IBM, a frontrunner in quantum tech, recently announced it expects to have the first workable quantum computer by 2029. | Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images The dates proposed by European cyber officials roughly aligned with those put forward by the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. U.S. tech giant IBM, a frontrunner in quantum tech, recently announced it expects to have the first workable quantum computer by 2029. That underlines the urgency of securing critical data. “The fact that we have this roadmap now and that all of the EU member states agreed on this … I think this is really a big step,” said Stephan Ehlen, a cryptography expert at the German cybersecurity agency and one of the authors of the roadmap. But making a plan is just the start. “This is not only about these algorithms, it’s a huge migration problem … It affects billions and billions of systems,” said Bart Preneel, a cryptographer also from KU Leuven. “It’s a very complex problem that you cannot solve in a few A4s.” It’s also a problem that hits home with national governments and their security and intelligence services. Several European governments have imposed export restrictions on quantum technology; the real concern for governments is whether their own communications are affected, and whether “everything they’re doing can be exposed,” Preneel said. Some experts have downplayed a doomsday scenario for quantum, arguing that even if computers are developed that can break modern encryption, it still requires a significant amount of work and money to do so. The EU has no excuse not to push on, said Manfred Lochter, another official at the German cyber agency. “If you don’t have access to quantum technologies, then you’re lost.”

As the EU Digital Summit opens today in Gdańsk under the auspices of the Polish EU Presidency, the AI Chamber unveiled the CEE AI Action Plan – a landmark initiative aimed at transforming Central and Eastern Europe into a globally competitive hub for artificial intelligence innovation. Backed by compelling economic data and crafted over months of regional consultation, the CEE AI Action Plan arrives at a critical moment: with over 150 million citizens and a combined GDP of €2.5 trillion, CEE is at a tipping point – one where the adoption or neglect of AI in the next 24 months could define the region’s economic trajectory for decades. High stakes for an undervalued region The CEE AI adoption rate remains far below Western Europe. By 2024, only 4–6% of CEE firms had adopted AI – compared to the EU’s average of 13.5%, well below the EU’s target of 75% by 2030. SMEs are even further behind, with most still at the experimentation stage. The region holds 22% of the EU’s population but only 11% of its GDP. Yet, unlocking AI could boost CEE’s GDP by up to €100 billion annually (5%), equivalent to adding an economy the size of Croatia every year. In a more ambitious scenario, the gain could reach €135 billion, or 8% of GDP. But the window is rapidly closing and without fast, coordinated action, the upside could shrink to a mere €15 billion a year. CEE’s core strengths – a strong track record of creating cutting-edge technologies, world-class STEM education, deep technical talent, and a growing startup ecosystem – offer a unique opportunity. AI, the Chamber argues, could serve as a “force multiplier” to empower SMEs, scale globally competitive startups, attract investment, and ultimately raise living standards across the region. A five-pillar roadmap for regional transformation The CEE AI Action Plan lays out a concrete, region-specific roadmap of tailored, actionable recommendations to boost productivity, scale breakthrough innovation, and drive competitiveness for the region.Framed around coordinated action that leverages the unique regional strengths and fosters cooperation rather than fragmented national efforts, the strategy calls for alignment across governments, businesses, academia, and civil society to turn CEE into an AI powerhouse. The Plan offers a strategy to foster innovation and productivity across five critical areas: infrastructure, data, talent, regulation, and innovation. The focus is on SMEs, which make up 99% of all businesses and contribute around half of CEE GDP. “This is a roadmap to transformation – but it’s not one-size-fits-all. We will work together with local authorities, ministries, and partner organizations in every CEE country to adapt and implement this plan where it matters most.” says Tomasz Snażyk, CEO of the AI Chamber. Building capacity and removing friction The Plan envisions a regionally integrated high-performance computing network linking existing national supercomputers to provide startups, SMEs, and researchers with the computing power needed to build advanced AI solutions or launch of testbed facilities in sectors like healthcare and autonomous vehicles. In terms of data, the Plan outlines the creation of a CEE Open Data Knowledge Network for public institutions to share best practices and make national Open Data Portals more accessible to developers and researchers. By introducing common governance standards and launching cross-border data trusts in sectors like healthcare and manufacturing, stakeholders would be able to securely pool data – laying the groundwork for more powerful and reliable AI model training. When it comes to talent, the Plan outlines targeted financial incentives, such as 1,000 fully funded AI fellowships, new academic programs, and a Brain Circulation program to both retain talent at home and attract top professionals from abroad. On regulation, the Plan advocates the creation of a CEE AI Policy Council to give the region greater influence in Brussels, ensuring that EU-wide rules reflect the region’s needs – such as protecting SMEs from disproportionate burdens. It also calls for regional regulatory sandboxes where startups could test AI systems safely, without drowning in legal complexity. Mobilizing capital for AI-driven growth In 2024, CEE startups raised just €2.3 billion in venture funding – a fraction of Western Europe’s total. With less than 10% of EU AI investment reaching CEE, AI Chamber’s strategy proposes a network of AI innovation hubs near top universities, challenge-driven National AI R&D funding, and region-wide technology transfer programs. These would help transform promising ideas – especially in traditional sectors like manufacturing and agriculture – into real products and growth companies. “The CEE region doesn’t have the luxury of waiting. The next 12 to 24 months are pivotal,” comments Snażyk. “If we empower SMEs with the right tools, data, and capital, they won’t just compete – they will lead.” Changing the narrative: from outsourcing to leadership The Plan is also about repositioning CEE globally. It proposes a CEE AI Champions portfolio featuring companies like UiPath, Rossum, and Infermedica, and a regional branding campaign to shift the perception of CEE from outsourcing center to AI innovation hub. “CEE doesn’t need to copy Silicon Valley to succeed – it needs to amplify its own strengths,” emphasizes Snażyk. “With strong local ecosystems and affordable talent, we can build startups that scale from Prague, Sofia, or Vilnius – not just from London or San Francisco.” A European challenge – and a regional answer The urgency is both regional and continental. AI is emerging as a crucial lever to offset demographic decline, counter rising labor costs, and sustain global competitiveness. The persistent digital divide with the West continues to limit AI’s potential in critical sectors including manufacturing, healthcare, and public administration. “CEE has a key advantage: there is far less legacy thinking and resistance to change than in many other places – giving us a real chance to leapfrog ahead. But seizing this opportunity will require strong public-private partnerships and profound changes in education and other key areas, as AI affects everyone and everything. We’ll also need stronger regional coordination – something this Action Plan calls for.” – says Mark Boris Andrijanič, member of the EIT Governing Board, Vice President of International Markets at Kumo.AI and former Minister of Digital Transformation for Slovenia. Message to Brussels: CEE is ready to lead Crafted in close alignment with the EU’s digital agenda and launched during Poland’s EU Council Presidency, the Plan signals that the region is no longer content to follow – it is ready to help lead Europe’s AI future.

BRUSSELS — The EU is set to deliver a sobering message to a growing movement in Europe calling for a detox from U.S. Big Tech. The message? That ain’t happening anytime soon. As the U.S. continues to up the ante in questioning transatlantic ties, calls are growing in Europe to reduce the continent’s reliance on U.S. technology in critical areas such as cloud services, artificial intelligence and microchips, and to opt for European alternatives instead. But the European Commission is preparing on Thursday to acknowledge publicly what many have said in private: Europe is nowhere near being able to wean itself off U.S. Big Tech. In a new International Digital Strategy the EU will instead promote collaboration with the U.S., according to a draft seen by POLITICO, as well as with other tech players including China, Japan, India and South Korea. “Decoupling is unrealistic and cooperation will remain significant across the technological value chain,” the draft reads.  It’s a reality check after a year that has seen calls for a technologically sovereign Europe gain significant traction. In December the Commission appointed Finland’s Henna Virkkunen as the first-ever commissioner in charge of tech sovereignty. After few months in office, European Parliament lawmakers embarked on an effort to draft a blueprint for tech sovereignty.  Even more consequential has been the rapid rise of the so-called Eurostack movement, which advocates building out a European tech infrastructure and has brought together effective voices including competition economist Cristina Caffarra and Kai Zenner, an assistant to key European lawmaker Axel Voss. There’s wide agreement on the problem: U.S. cloud giants capture over two-thirds of the European market, the U.S. outpaces the EU in nurturing companies for artificial intelligence, and Europe’s stake in the global microchips market has crumbled to around 10 percent. Thursday’s strategy will acknowledge the U.S.’s “superior ability to innovate” and “Europe’s failure to capitalise on the digital revolution.” What’s missing are viable solutions to the complex problem of unwinding deep-rooted dependencies. The EU has embarked on a journey to catch up on AI infrastructure, earmarking billions of euros for AI-optimized supercomputers in a bid to counter U.S. plans by OpenAI and others. Yet even tech-friendly lawmakers have expressed doubts this will succeed.  Europe should “sober up” in its quest for tech sovereignty and accept that “certain trains have left the station,” conservative Bulgarian lawmaker Eva Maydell told POLITICO’s AI and Tech Summit last month. “We need to have a very clear outline plan which, first and foremost, assesses where our strengths are, where we have certain dependencies, and where we need to cooperate,” said Maydell. Europe should “sober up” in its quest for tech sovereignty and accept that “certain trains have left the station,” conservative Bulgarian lawmaker Eva Maydell told POLITICO’s AI and Tech Summit last month. | Matthias Balk/Picture Alliance via Getty Images Thursday’s strategy is expected to do just that, with a long list of opportunities to collaborate in areas such as chips, quantum technology, AI and secure connectivity.  “[The strategy] is more pragmatic than being politically absolutist … [and saying] OK, we’re going to do everything in Europe,” said Dan Nechita, former head of Cabinet of European lawmaker Dragoș Tudorache and now EU director for the Transatlantic Policy Network. He likened it to growing tomatoes or potatoes at home: “It doesn’t mean that I could not, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense.” As even some of Europe’s most Atlanticist, free-market corners grow wary of their addiction to the U.S., a few countries and cities are embarking on their own political efforts to break free. National lawmakers in The Hague have been building pressure on the Dutch government to wean off its dependence on American providers — only for their efforts to be derailed by Geert Wilders’ decision to quit the government coalition.  The Danish cities of Copenhagen and Aarhus decided on Tuesday to look for alternatives to allow them to drop Microsoft productivity products and cloud services, as Denmark prepares to take over a leading role in Brussels running meetings of EU ministers from July 1. But Thursday’s strategy acknowledges skepticism as to whether the EU actually has alternatives for these political front-runners to fall back on, or whether it makes sense to splash billions of euros on getting them off the ground. The EU’s tech chief Virkkunen has underscored the Commission’s desire to keep the bloc open to the world in her first months in office, by taking trips to India, Japan and the U.S. and consistently emphasizing the importance of dialogue and close collaboration.  She has the backing of some of the most influential tech lobby groups in town — even on the need to continue to work with the U.S.  “We need a transatlantic tech alliance to jointly develop and protect the technologies that underpin our shared security and economic prosperity such as AI, quantum and semiconductors,” Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, director general of DigitalEurope, told POLITICO ahead of Thursday’s unveiling.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is finalizing a plan to make its artificial intelligence rules more palatable to companies, as they scramble to adapt to American tariffs that have sent shockwaves through the global economy. The EU executive will launch a new “AI Continent” plan on Wednesday. According to an undated draft of the plan obtained by POLITICO, the executive wants to “streamline” rules and get rid of “obstacles” that it feels are slowing companies in Europe down in competing with the U.S. and China. The strategy accomodates concerns expressed by Big Tech companies and AI front-runners, which directed fierce lobbying attacks against the EU’s AI Act and other pieces of digital legislation. Those concerns of the tech industry were echoed by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in his landmark report on competitiveness in Europe and were included in the key priorities of Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as Commission president. The Commission’s tech czar Henna Virkkunen told a global AI conference in Paris in early February that the EU’s regulatory framework should be more “innovation-friendly.” Wednesday’s draft strategy is expected to say that the bloc needs to seize the “opportunity to minimize the potential compliance burden” of the AI Act. OpenAI’s Vice President for Global Affairs Chris Lehane told POLITICO in an interview last week that Brussels needs to keep its rules “simple and predictable.” Lehane is in Brussels this week to meet with EU policymakers — a signal that leading AI companies are watching Wednesday’s announcement closely. The Commission’s tech czar Henna Virkkunen told a global AI conference in Paris in early February that the EU’s regulatory framework should be more “innovation-friendly.” | Emmi Korhonen/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images The OpenAI chief lobbyist said he had seen “a shift in mindset of how people are thinking about AI and the opportunity” at the summit in Paris in February. But he added that the question is now whether Brussels “can get the strategy right.” According to the latest tally only 13 percent of European companies have adopted AI. Lehane said that besides having “simple rules,” the EU should also be able to build its own AI infrastructure and launch an effort to retrain European workers. By 2030, the EU should increase its computing power by 300 percent, and 100 million Europeans should have acquired AI skills, OpenAI said on Monday in recommendations called the “EU’s economic blueprint” targeted at EU policymakers. It also pitched a €1 billion fund for AI pilot projects. SHOW US THE OBSTACLES The EU’s executive in its plan on Wednesday wants to ask the tech industry to “identify where regulatory uncertainty creates obstacles” to developing and deploying AI. The draft text listed measures to boost the computing power and high-quality data needed to train AI models, as well as the industry’s uptake of AI and workers’ AI skills. Brussels is also set to make progress on its effort to build five “AI gigafactories” — a €20 billion promise made by Commission President Von der Leyen during the Paris AI Action Summit. Wednesday’s plan includes a call for EU countries to invest in or host such gigafactories — a first step for gauging interest before a more formal procedure kicks off at the end of this year. Those gigafactories are meant to train the most complex AI models and will have four times the processors of the current most performant supercomputers. The Commission is also paving the way to expand Europe’s cloud and data center capacity. The draft stated that Brussels aims to “triple” Europe’s data center capacity in the next five to seven years. It labeled Europe’s current reliance on “non-EU infrastructure,” notably American hyperscalers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, as a concern for industry and governments.

Ursula von der Leyen is rounding out the first 100 days of her second term in office — and what a whirlwind it’s been. Since the European Commission president won a second mandate, Donald Trump’s return to the White House in the United States has upended the transatlantic relationship, calling into question the existence of NATO as well as U.S. support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia. The pressure coming from Washington — which has threatened the EU with 25 percent tariffs and warned it may not defend countries that fail to spend enough on defense — has forced the Commission to speed up work on reforms designed to bolster the bloc’s defenses and make it more competitive on the global stage.  “On all these issues, the direction of travel was always clear,” von der Leyen told a press conference on Sunday. “What has changed is the sense of urgency. Something fundamental has shifted.” Indeed, among the key reforms von der Leyen’s Commission is due to present this month is a so-called “White Paper” on defense that’s meant to spell out options on how Europe can finance a major defense rampup.  But Trump’s moves on Ukraine, as well as his threats not to defend countries that don’t spend enough on defense, have moved that timeline forward, with EU leaders endorsing plans to spend €800 billion in the coming years during an emergency meeting in Brussels last week — front-running the White Paper. In addition to defense, the European Commission president laid out a series of promises for the EU’s executive body to fulfill in the first 100 days of its term. But that was before Trump was elected and halted aid to Ukraine, threatened the EU with sweeping tariffs, and threw the established world order into doubt. The pressure coming from Washington has forced the Commission to speed up work on reforms designed to bolster the bloc’s defenses and make it more competitive on the global stage. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images So, how have von der Leyen’s promises held up? Here’s POLITICO’s verdict. 1. CLEAN INDUSTRIAL DEAL What von der Leyen said: “There is an equally urgent need to decarbonize and industrialize our economy at the same time,” von der Leyen wrote in her second-term manifesto. Her solution: A “Clean Industrial Deal” that would revive the EU’s struggling, heavy-polluting industries — think steel or cement — while reducing their carbon footprint, and also boost manufacturers of new climate-friendly technologies such as electric heat pumps.  Did she hit her target? The Clean Industrial Deal arrived on Feb. 26 (day 88) and responded to many of industry’s demands. The strategy outlined steps to reduce energy prices, source raw materials and create demand for low-carbon products. It was more wobbly on financing — with a new $100 billion fund mainly drawing from existing or already earmarked cash and betting on governments volunteering more money — and addressing trade pressures.  Meanwhile, although the Commission was also eager to roll back green regulations, its promised 2040 climate target — which green groups, clean-tech firms and EU countries like Denmark wanted to incorporate within the Clean Industrial Deal — has still not been published.  Where will the EU go next? The Clean Industrial Deal will unfold over the coming years with more than two dozen legislative proposals, legal reforms and sector-specific “action plans.” The big items for this year include a reformed state-aid framework coming in summer — meant to deliver on some of the investment and energy price promises — and an “Industrial Decarbonization Accelerator Act” toward the end of the year that will establish a label for low-carbon products and made-in-EU green requirements for government spending. And that 2040 target should come soon as well.  Score: — By Zia Weise 2. EUROPEAN ACTION PLAN ON THE CYBERSECURITY OF HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS What von der Leyen said: Europe “must do more” to protect its health-care system from an ever-increasing barrage of cyberattacks, which can knock out vital systems or lock doctors and nurses out of sensitive patient data until criminals get a ransom. The EU’s answer? Ramped-up technical support, an early-warning system and rapid response teams. Did she hit her target? Sort of. The EU published its plan on Jan. 15 (day 46), which got a reasonably warm response. There was, however, one big caveat: It all depends on money, and the plan made little mention of that — even though cash remains “the most important issue,” according to Tomislav Sokol, a Croatian member of the European Parliament with the center-right European People’s Party group, in comments made when the plan was published.  Digitaleurope, a trade body, reckons the plan is a “good starting point” but echoed concerns about a lack of clarity on cash.  Where will the EU go next? The technical: The Commission will now consult on the plan, with various deadlines to hit throughout this year and next. The political: The cash question is for EU capitals to address, said Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi when unveiling the plan. “I understand that this is a problem across the board in Europe, that there’s not enough resources dedicated to [protecting data]. But we’re making the point with this proposal that there would have to be,” he said. The success of the plan “will, of course, depend on the support from the European member states,” said Wim Hafkamp, managing director at Z-Cert, the Dutch computer emergency response team for the health sector.  Score: — By Sam Clark 3. AI FACTORIES INITIATIVE What von der Leyen said: Von der Leyen pledged to ensure European startups had access to the necessary computing power to compete in the accelerating global artificial intelligence race by “building” massive AI supercomputers, also known as AI factories. With many European startups currently relying on U.S. computing power, the move could also be read as a push to become more technologically sovereign.  Did she hit her target? Kind of. On Dec. 11 (day 11), the European Commission announced it would contribute half of a planned €1.5 billion investment into seven European sites. But the victory was short-lived: U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office in January and announced a $500 billion AI hardware plan, moving the goalposts somewhat.  So the Commission moved again. On Feb. 10, at the AI Action Summit in Paris, von der Leyen unveiled a plan to mobilize €200 billion for hardware, including a €20 billion fund to build four AI gigafactories aimed at training the most complex AI models.  Where will the EU go next? On this one we’re only getting started. The Commission is expected to grant funding to five more AI factories in March. The road to the gigafactories is even longer: There’s no clear breakdown on how much funding will be provided, nor any details on how much of that will come from the EU budget.  Score: — By Pieter Haeck 4. WHITE PAPER ON DEFENSE What von der Leyen said: In her political guidelines the Commission president said she would present a White Paper on the Future of European Defence to identify investment needs. In the past months the Commission made clear that the policy document would also include financing options to help the bloc massively boost defense spending.  Did she hit her target? Yes and no. Von der Leyen technically hasn’t presented her White Paper yet, with publication slated for March 19 (day 109).  However, on March 4 (day 91) she did present a plan to send loans of up to €150 billion to governments to help them increase their military expenditure. The money can be spent on artillery, missiles, ammunition, drones and anti-drone systems, as well as on weapons for Ukraine.  Von der Leyen also said she would trigger the EU’s national escape clause, a mechanism to prevent defense spending from being included in the punishment mechanism for countries breaching the bloc’s deficit rules.  Her plans were approved by EU leaders on March 6.  Where will the EU go next? The Commission now has to translate the financing proposals into actual legislative instruments.  The EU’s executive branch is also still expected to present the White Paper on Defense, which could include more financing options, as well as more details on the EU’s industrial priorities for armament.  Score: — By Laura Kayali 5. VISION FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD What von der Leyen said: Von der Leyen pledged to present a Vision for Agriculture and Food, building on an agrifood roundtable held during the first half of last year. “We need to overcome contradictions … that’s why the strategic dialogue on the future of farming has begun,” she told lawmakers in July. “I’ve promised to listen carefully and to draw important lessons.” Did she hit her target? On Feb. 19 (day 81), Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen delivered an underwhelming vision that tried to please everybody with better conditions for farmers, fairer supply chains and a rethinking of sustainability policies. But for many, this big, fancy vision — which is to replace the previous Farm to Fork Strategy — has landed more as a farmer-friendly agenda that’s big on promises but short on cash. Where will the EU go next? The Commission is expected to move forward with the first part of the plan in April: to cut red tape on the €300 billion-plus farm budget by easing requirements to access the cash. By the end of the year, Hansen wants to crack down on other rules affecting farmers beyond the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) — such as environmental and food safety policies. Score: — By Paula Andrés 6. YOUTH POLICY DIALOGUES What von der Leyen said: In her guidelines von der Leyen said young people should be able to use their voices and shape their futures. She also said she wanted her commissioners to lead by example and to engage in “youth policy dialogues” within the first 100 days.  Did she hit her target? Yes, albeit narrowly. Sixteen of the 28 commissioners held their youth policy dialogues the week before the deadline (days 93-97), while three commissioners are set to hold dialogues on March 10 (day 100): justice chief Michael McGrath, tech sovereignty boss Henna Virkkunen and innovation lead Ekaterina Zaharieva. Deadline work resonates well with young people.  Where will the EU go next? The youth policy dialogues are meant to be a recurring event in which commissioners talk to young people once a year. The bigger question is how — or if — this will feed the Commission’s policy work.  Youth Commissioner Glenn Micallef, who played wheelchair basketball during his dialogue in Athens, told POLITICO that the experience of wheelchair sports is “a whole new dimension” compared to just reading up on inclusive sports.  Score: — By Pieter Haeck 7. ENLARGEMENT POLICY REVIEW What von der Leyen said: Outlining priorities several months ago, von der Leyen zeroed in on enlargement — expanding the bloc’s membership — as well as the need to tweak the EU’s rules to make space for new members. Paris and Berlin have both argued that if the EU is grow to as many as 30 or 35 members it will need to change rules on agricultural aid, for instance, to ensure that existing members aren’t penalized. This gave rise to von der Leyen’s call for an in-depth “policy review” examining all aspects of enlargement. In a foretaste of this intricate process — potentially including changes to the EU’s basic treaties — a preparatory document published in July was 22 pages long. Did she hit her target? Insofar as a document will be published, yes. That’s what the Commission does. But this is one case where the savage geopolitics of the day is likely to derail the EU’s natural bureaucratic pace.   Where will the EU go next? Von der Leyen has already flagged that Ukraine could join the bloc by 2030, possibly earlier. Her enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, has floated the possibility of giving Ukraine faster access to parts of the EU’s single market as part of an accelerated accession process. “We are also working on plans to accelerate the integration of Ukraine into many more parts of the Single Market — to attract more investments, to strengthen Europe-wide value chains, and to create new opportunities for both Ukrainian and European businesses,” Kos said last week. Naturally, all this happened before the policy review was published. Score: — By Nicholas Vinocur

The European Union is planning a €20 billion fund to help keep up in the global artificial intelligence race, the bloc’s biggest response so far to massive U.S. investment plans. European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told France’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit that she wanted to set up more AI gigafactories in the EU to provide the computing power to train the largest and most complex AI models. “Global AI leadership is still up for grabs,” she said in a speech. “Too often I hear that Europe is late to the race, while the United States or China already got ahead.” “Our goal is that every company, not only the big players, have access to the computing power they need,” she said, calling the EU’s effort “the largest public investment for AI in the world, which will unlock over ten times more private investment.” The €20 billion InvestAI fund– partly financed from existing EU funding programs – aims to leverage up to €200 billion which could come from EU governments and private sources, potentially with the involvement of the EU government-owned European Investment Bank. This is the EU’s answer to the U.S. administration’s announcement of a $500 billion hardware plan to build data centers that could fuel the country’s ambitions to lead the world on AI. French President Emmanuel Macron this week also announced a €109 billion plan to boost AI in France in the coming years. The emergence of a low-cost Chinese AI model, DeepSeek, has since rocked the industry by showing that AI systems can be built without massive investment. Von der Leyen’s announcement builds on a December pledge of €2 billion for seven AI-optimized supercomputers, which will be open to startups to train AI models. Five more will be announced “soon,” the Commission said today. The €20 billion InvestAI funding will draw from programs like the Digital Europe Programme, Horizon Europe and InvestEU. Commission tech sovereignty chief Henna Virkkunen said the EU wanted to help a strong AI start-up community that can “often lack access to computing capacity.” “In one year, we will have five times more computing capacity in supercomputers than we have today, but of course, more investments are needed,” she told POLITICO in an interview.

BRUSSELS — Brussels doesn’t want to be a leader only in regulating artificial intelligence. Top European Union officials are now keen to show tech companies, founders and investors alike that Europe can be a great place to do business, too. AI innovation has taken over from AI regulation as a talking point since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen began her new five-year term in December. She has seized on AI as a potential magic wand to invigorate Europe’s sluggish economy. The EU’s AI pitch will go global at the Feb. 10-11 AI Action Summit in France, where the bloc’s top brass will need to bring their A-game. United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on winning the global AI race by slashing rules and backing big investments, while the emergence of China’s AI model DeepSeek shows that other regions also have a shot at getting ahead. The EU, by contrast, has the AI Act, which curbs some potentially risky AI services. Its provisions will be rolled out over the next year and a half.  While the EU describes the rules as providing legal certainty for an uncertain new technology, it’s been a bugbear for tech companies, which claim that such laws only thwart Europe’s AI ambitions. CORRECT COURSE The EU’s pivot from AI regulation to innovation starts at the top.  Von der Leyen started her first term at the top of the EU’s rulemaking body in 2019 by promising legislation to deal with AI’s “human and ethical implications.” The draft AI Act landed two years later in April 2021. By mid-2024, that tone had shifted as von der Leyen sought a second mandate and promised to tackle problems that could hold back EU growth, such as a surfeit of red tape. AI innovation has taken over from AI regulation as a talking point since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen began her new five-year term in December. | Frederick Florin/Getty Images Europe was already leading in making AI safe, von der Leyen argued: “We must now focus our efforts on becoming a global leader in AI innovation.” That job was entrusted to the Commission’s new tech boss, Henna Virkkunen of Finland.  It’s a hefty challenge. The U.S. is home to most leading AI model providers, such as OpenAI’s GPT series, Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. It also hosts the world’s biggest cloud providers — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — and AI chips giant Nvidia. European businesses have been very slow even to use the technology, with only 13 percent of them having adopted AI.  Virkkunen, just two months into the job, has tried to correct that course. For starters, she announced a €1.5 billion investment into seven AI-optimized supercomputers, half of that amount funded by the EU. The supercomputers should help European AI startups with training ChatGPT rivals.  She also signaled that the EU is open for business, telling the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that action was crucial “because we know that we are lagging very much behind now when it comes to innovation and investment in Europe.” She’s been more explicit in the lead-up to the Paris AI summit. “Our aim is to promote AI innovation and investment in the EU,” she wrote on Instagram after a call with French President Emmanuel Macron and 20 European AI company executives.  At the same time, Virkkunen and other EU officials have said relatively little about the AI Act, which at the start of February banned a series of potentially problematic AI practices. They also don’t seem to have weighed in on the drafting of voluntary rules for the models of companies like OpenAI, to the dismay of the companies involved.  SPENDING Money talks louder than rules, especially when it comes to the massive U.S. investment plan for AI hardware. The EU will find it hard to match that plan as the budgets of member countries remain under pressure and efforts to open up capital markets for investors stall. “You have to spend a lot of money, and what we are spending right now is totally insufficient,” said Axel Voss, a German lawmaker at the European Parliament who leads the work on the EU’s AI liability rules.  The emergence of China’s AI model DeepSeek shows that other regions also have a shot at getting ahead. | Riccardo Milan and Hans Lucas/Getty Images “If you’re looking at the U.S., they are already [at] the top of everything, and now they’re trying to spend $500 billion once again on AI,” he said. Some U.S. Big Tech companies say EU regulation is a brake on potential investment. Meta’s chief lobbyist Joel Kaplan blasted the EU’s AI regulatory framework at an event in Brussels and warned that Europe will miss out on the opportunities that AI brings. “There’s just a tremendous opportunity given the depth of talent and universities and R&D that exist here in Europe to become a real leader,” he said. “But that’s just not the direction regulators are going.”  Google’s top lobbyist Kent Walker also warned on Thursday that the EU’s voluntary rules for the most advanced AI models were a “step in the wrong direction” for any EU effort to catch up with global rivals. But Marietje Schaake, a former European lawmaker and one of the academic experts currently drafting a voluntary set of rules for the most advanced AI models, brushes those criticisms aside as attempts by the tech giants to dodge regulation.  “[Tech companies] always want to say that the EU is cumbersome and bureaucratic, and now they attach that to AI,” she said.  Nevertheless, the view has been reinforced that the EU could benefit from a more “positive approach” by prioritizing opportunities instead of regulation to rein in potential threats.  “It would have been better probably to approach all this from this perspective of what we would like to achieve with AI instead of what is extremely risky and [what we] do not want,” Voss said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Chinese AI app DeepSeek is a “wake-up call” for the American tech industry — but added it could be a “positive” one.  DeepSeek was released just a week ago and has shaken the tech world and Wall Street with its performance at a fraction of the cost it took to develop more established AI platforms, but the U.S. president said the Chinese artificial intelligence could actually serve as an asset for American tech companies.  “I’ve been reading about China and some of the companies in China, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and a much less expensive method, and that’s good because you don’t have to spend as much money,” Trump said on Monday aboard Air Force One. The U.S. president last week unveiled a $500 billion project to build infrastructure needed to cement American AI dominance in the years to come — but the Chinese app’s showing could call into question the efficacy of the investment, as DeepSeek was able to achieve its results at a much lower cost. “The release of DeepSeek should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” the president said, but added that the U.S. will remain a dominant player in the field. “We always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive that could be very much a positive development. So instead of spending billions and billions, you’ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution,” he remarked. “If you could do it cheaper, if you could do it for less and get to the same end result. I think that’s a good thing for us,” Trump said. According to DeepSeek, their R1 model matched and in some cases exceeded the performance of OpenAI’s cutting-edge o1 product in a number of performance benchmarks at a fraction of the cost. Shortly after its release, the powerful new Chinese AI app shot to No. 1 in Apple’s App Store over the weekend, sending shares of American tech giants tumbling: It led to a 17 percent drop in the stock price of American chipmaker Nvidia on Monday, amounting to a loss of nearly $600 million — a record single-day loss for any company on Wall Street, according to CNBC. The Chinese app’s rapid rise is not only an alarm for the American tech industry, but also another warning sign for Europe that the EU risks being left behind in the AI race between Washington and Beijing.  Although the European Commission has pledged €750 million to build and maintain AI-optimized supercomputers that startups can use to train their AI models, it’s hard to say whether they’ll be able to generate revenue to justify the EU’s initial investment, especially since it’s already a challenge for established AI companies.

BRUSSELS— The United States just fired the starting gun on an artificial intelligence race where Europe won’t be able to keep up.  U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a half-trillion-dollar project to build the infrastructure needed to cement U.S. AI dominance in the years to come, starting with a data center in Texas. The level of ambition has jaws dropping in Europe where political leaders have pinned hopes on AI helping to restore the continent’s global leadership.  “This is more than a wake-up call; this is a slap in our face,” said Christian Miele, general partner at venture capital firm Headline, which invests in French AI firm Mistral. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has talked big about the EU becoming a leader in AI innovation as part of a larger bid to help the region catch up with the U.S. and China. French President Emmanuel Macron is aiming for a similar pitch at a global AI summit he’ll host next month. The size of the U.S. plan blows the EU pitch out of the water, and reveals the U.S. focus on keeping up with China. Europe – which has already lost out on social media, cloud and chips – looks already set to fall behind on AI. In just a week, the U.S. has taken a radically more aggressive stance on AI, restricting the export of its AI chips to the rest of the world, ditching an AI regulation push and now rolling out an investment program that one investor likened to the Manhattan Project — the U.S. scheme to produce a nuclear weapon in the 1940s.  MAGNITUDE The EU does have plans to foster the rollout of the hardware needed to train artificial intelligence models, such as European rivals to OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT.  In December, the Commission selected seven sites across the bloc that would receive funding to build AI-optimized supercomputers, open for startups and researchers to train their AI models.  The total amount of that investment was €1.5 billion, of which half comes from the EU budget. The EU’s investment “is several orders of magnitude below what has just been announced in the U.S.,” said Holger Hoos, AI professor at RWTH Aachen University and chair of CAIRNE, a network of AI research labs.  This shows that the EU doesn’t have enough ambition, he said. Donald Trump’s Stargate Project plans to deploy $100 billion immediately, leaning on private funding and equity partners including Japan’s SoftBank. | Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images Venture capitalist Miele echoes this: “The strategic relevance of AI has not yet been understood at the political level.” Trump’s Stargate Project plans to deploy $100 billion immediately, leaning on private funding and equity partners including Japan’s SoftBank, AI pioneer OpenAI, software giant Oracle and the investor MGX. U.K. chips firm Arm and U.S. AI chips designer Nvidia are technology partners, along with Microsoft which works with OpenAI, including by providing its Azure cloud services. The EU also has no leading AI companies that can drum up private capital to the same extent. “We don’t have these Big Tech champions that the U.S. has; we don’t have this luxury of being able to work with them in order to mobilize private capital,” said Giorgos Verdi, policy fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations. “I cannot think of, let’s say, Mistral being able to mobilize this kind of investment capacity and building these huge AI data centers,” he said. Europe’s fragmented financial markets have always been a barrier for European startups and there’s so far been little real progress on plans to improve the region’s capital markets. Energy is another roadblock for Europe’s ability to match the U.S. AI push.  Data centers, especially those powering AI, are energy-intensive operations. President Trump has embraced the “drill baby drill” slogan and declared a “national energy emergency” to boost gas and oil production.  In Europe, energy prices have skyrocketed in the wake of the war in Ukraine, with many companies saying high costs make it hard for them to compete with global rivals. “The kind of energy that is going to be needed in order to operate infrastructure on that scale is going to be insane,” said Miele.  POLICY PIPELINE The U.S. move could yet shock the EU into some sort of action. In a Wednesday debate at the European Parliament, von der Leyen singled out AI as a “strategic area” where her Commission needs to coordinate with national governments on investment. Investors, startup and tech lobby groups, and European lawmakers urged Brussels to go further and seize the moment with a comprehensive AI hardware plan. France Digitale, France’s leading tech and startup lobby group, said it seemed “inevitable” to propose “structural reforms” in funding innovation. Aura Salla, a Finnish member of the European Parliament, called for urgent attention to capital markets. “We cannot fix the investment gap with public financing, we must attract more private investment,” she said. The Commission has a pipeline of policy initiatives to try and fix some of its ills. None of them involve big investment. Next week, von der Leyen unveils a competitiveness compass to show how she’ll try to get the economy going. There are also plans for a single corporate code for startups, the 28th regime, to end a current regulatory patchwork. But beyond that, experts warn that the EU could quickly face a reality check about its ability to develop ambitious OpenAI rivals and should opt for smaller projects and models instead. “At which point do we want to accept that we might not be able to compete with the U.S.?” Verdi asked.