EU faces doubts over bid to steer AI rules

Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union pledge to slow frontier AI development and help set global rules drew a divided response in the European Parliament. She argued that the EU AI Act gives Europe a platform to shape international safeguards and proposed cooperation with Canada, the United Kingdom and others on model evaluation, verification, early warning and AI security.

Sceptics said Brussels lacks leverage because leading AI developers are based elsewhere. Michael McNamara, an independent Irish MEP and co-chair of Parliament’s AI Act implementation group, called the pledge “lip-service” and criticized the Commission’s shifting approach, including backing the AI Act, withdrawing an AI Liability Directive, and later revisiting safeguards during Omnibus talks.

Europe’s weakness is also financial and industrial. The continent captures less than 5% of the estimated $1 trillion (€871.6tn) global AI investment, compared with 75-80% for the US and 10-14% for China. Brando Benifei, another co-chair of the AI working group, said the AI Act can still make Europe a safety leader if backed by sovereign cloud, chips, unified capital and a public CERN for AI.