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An alien looking down on the Berlaymont might marvel at the asymmetrical cadence of EU policymaking vs unmaking.
On Wednesday the Commission presented drastic cuts to the bloc’s digital rules – packaged under a seductive keyword: simplification. Some of these laws, like the EU’s AI Act, are still so new the ink is barely dry. Others – like the privacy-focused GDPR – are foundational, grounded on the bloc’s charter of fundamental rights.
Little matter, as commissioners lined up to celebrate the cutting of digital “red tape” as if it were a kind of ribbon-cutting opening ceremony. Step one: Snip-snip-snip, step two: Let the AI-driven innovation commence! Next stop: Profit?
We may blame Mario Draghi for this spectacle. His exhortation to EU lawmakers to “do something” in February – half a year after landing his diagnostic report on European competitiveness – has delivered a deregulatory fiesta that’s detached from any consideration of the consequences.
If adopted, Wednesday’s cuts will have long and lasting impacts on European rights, without any guarantee of upside for homegrown innovation. The changes to digital rules will generate uncertainty, rather than help European competitiveness, policy analysts have suggested.
Indeed, those most likely to benefit from people’s data being less protected from AI mining are the same US giants that have dominated the digital arena for decades – crimping European competitiveness by denying a fair playing field for alternative innovation. But don’t just take my word for it: Another piece of the EU’s digital acquis, the Digital Markets Act, was supposed to tackle that.
The awful irony is that had the EU had the courage to enforce its digital rulebook on US platforms when it had the chance – starting as far back as May 2018 in the case of GDPR – the dream of European competitiveness might by now have become reality, and Draghi the one casting around for report-writing commissions.
US giants vying to dominate AI are drawing on vast troves of personal data that they’ve been able to amass in spite of EU laws like the GDPR. Several of these AI players have also spent millions in Brussels in recent years lobbying for deregulation – money that now looks very well spent.
The Commission PR for the digital omnibus shows Brussels has internalised big tech’s framing of regulation as “anti-innovation” – at the same time as signing up to a high-risk betting of the farm on AI at peak hype cycle – all in the name of doing something.
Other narratives – and diagnoses – are available. Venture capital firm Atomico’s annual report on the state of European tech also emerged this week. It polled founders on the biggest regulatory barriers to scaling their businesses. Data and AI regulation didn’t top their list; market fragmentation, taxation, and access to capital markets did.
As the EU’s former digital chief Thierry Breton also warned this week, let’s not be useful idiots.
Roundup
Trade committee chair blasts course towards economic protectionism – Bernd Lange, chair of the EP’s trade committee, denounced what he called the new “European Economic Security Doctrine” led by trade chief Maroš Šefčovič, saying it undermines the international rules-based trading system and could prevent the EU from reacting to changes in US and Chinese policy.
EU says no to watery chicken – The Commission refused to approve calls from MEPs to increase the water content allowed in chicken, despite pleas from the industry to revise the decades-old limits. “It’s not like we’re putting a piece of breast meat in the pan and water floods out. It’s a very slight difference,” said one disgruntled MEP.
New digital framework stokes privacy fears – Billboards urging President von der Leyen to put Europeans over American technology CEOs lined the streets outside of the Commission following the changes to AI and privacy laws as part of the digital omnibus. Activists slammed “the biggest attack on European’s digital rights in years.” Analysts expect the move will harm EU competitiveness.
Across Europe
A historic conviction in Spain – Spain’s top court convicted Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz for leaking confidential information, concluding a high-profile trial that saw more than 40 witnesses taking the stand. It’s the first time in Spanish history that the country’s top prosecutor has been prosecuted and found guilty.
Germany pushes for “return hub” – Greece’s migration minister said Germany wants to set up a “return hub” in Africa, with participation from willing EU countries. “Exactly what Italy is trying to do with Albania, we want to do on the African continent,” he said in an interview, adding the project is independent from a previous EU proposal.
Slovakia weighs suing EU – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has asked ministers to prepare an analysis exploring the EU’s plans to phase out Russian gas to Slovakia, claiming it may breach guarantees offered to them. Slovakia remains heavily dependent on Russian gas and, unlike many other EU states, has done little to reduce this energy vulnerability.
