"With ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life for many people so quickly that they simply reacted with incomprehension when they heard that Apple Intelligence or Meta's Llama would not be available to European consumers.
It seems that the EU is being disconnected from the AI boom and the European economy is finally losing touch with the competition from the USA, China and other parts of the world. To the detriment of the European economy and to the detriment of Europeans. While it is still too early for panic-stricken doomsdays, the causes of this development are a real cause for concern.
Because on the one hand we have the EU, which in recent years has mainly responded to technological progress with over-regulation that is far removed from practice. And on the other hand, large tech companies that are engaged in a power struggle with the European Commission.
The Commission's great self-deception
As an MEP, I helped negotiate the AI Act between 2021 and 2024, but I also actively participated in other legislative processes such as the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act. While there are good reasons for these new regulations, it is now clear, at the latest when it comes to implementation, that the flood of regulations and directives initiated by the EU Commission threatens to bury the European economy. The Commission's greatest self-deception was the promise of innovation made in Europe, while it has produced ever new requirements. Practical experience shows how contradictory, unclear, extremely expensive or even impossible to fulfill new regulations can often be - not only for the digital economy, but for the entire economy.
Large companies argue for a slower roll-out or not introducing their products into the EU internal market that the restrictions on the use of data under the General Data Protection Regulation and the opening of their own systems under the Digital Markets Act would create legal uncertainty. The fact that technical innovations are now partially unavailable in the EU is alarming, and I am convinced that this is at least partly due to the regulatory frenzy that was supported by a majority of member states, but also by the European Parliament.
However, we should not overlook the fact that the debate is being fueled to a large extent by large technology companies, especially Meta and Apple. These companies certainly have a vested interest in putting pressure on the EU Commission, which has proven itself to be a guardian of fair competition in recent years and has in some cases imposed heavy fines on big tech companies. Legitimate problems with poor and excessive regulation, which are particularly common among small and medium-sized companies, are of course also being exploited by Meta, Apple and Co. for their own purposes. It would be naive not to mention this.
European companies, especially smaller ones, are suffering in two ways: Firstly, implementing the numerous new rules is extremely financially burdensome, because contradictory requirements actually lead to considerable legal uncertainty. On the other hand, they fall behind their international competitors if they cannot use new AI products such as Llama for their business. The latter also causes considerable harm to end customers.
Everyone must abide by the rules
How can we deal with this double burden? Allowing ourselves to be blackmailed by individual large companies and restricting fair competition, for which the Digital Markets Act was created, is not an option. Fair competition is the basic prerequisite for innovation and prosperity. Large tech companies from third countries must abide by the rules that also apply to everyone else in the EU. Only through dialogue can we put an end to the power struggles at the expense of European companies and consumers. Both we Europeans and international tech companies have an interest in ensuring that the European market is not cut off from innovative software.
Laws such as the Digital Markets Act or the AI Act, which were only recently passed, are unlikely to be changed in the near future. The main aim here is to enable practical implementation. Uncertainties must be eliminated through guidelines and European standards. So that compliance costs remain within limits and all companies - from the self-employed in a co-working café to the global corporation in Silicon Valley - know exactly what is expected of them.
The most important thing for the near future is the shift towards deregulation. This is the boost for the economy and competition that the European laws themselves have the power to decide. This applies to the EU Commission as well as to the newly elected parliament and the governments of the member states. The new focus on competitiveness of the new EU Commission gives cause for hope for an economic turnaround for Europe.
Promoting tech made in Europe
In the future, economic growth will depend more and more on technological progress, optimization and new inventions. If the new EU Commission is serious about strengthening European competitiveness, the use of technology and tech made in Europe will play a decisive role. As Vice President of the EU Commission, Henna Virkkunen is to take care of technological sovereignty, security and democracy.
The term technological sovereignty or autarky allows for a number of possible interpretations and political priorities. Wanting to create tech protectionism or build a European Google with taxpayers' money would certainly be the wrong direction. Technological sovereignty must mean setting a regulatory framework that safeguards civil rights and constitutional principles. In addition, it must mean creating an innovation-friendly climate in which ideas and companies can grow and are not nipped in the bud by fear of progress and bureaucracy.
Unleashing the power of innovation
The new EU Commission will first have to dare to strike this balance between a clear legal framework and a start-up mindset. It would be best to start with an offensive to reduce bureaucracy, abolish superfluous rules and make a mandatory impact assessment for all new laws with a particular focus on competitiveness and SMEs. Time is running out, because it cannot be enough for us that the EU can at least participate in the AI boom and technological progress that comes from outside the EU. Rather, our goal must be to unleash the forces of innovation in the EU itself." [1]
Instead of calming down after the failure of the battles for Crimea and allocating a little money to the development of technology, the EU elite tries to show that it also understands technology by inventing new absurd laws, supposedly regulating technology.
1. Verliert die EU den Anschluss? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. Sep 25, 2024. Von Svenja Hahn
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