The European Commission has presented a European Technological Sovereignty Package aimed at strengthening Europe’s capacity in Artificial Intelligence and semiconductors as demand for computing power rises. The move responds to heavy dependency on suppliers outside the EU for core digital technologies and seeks to reinforce digital autonomy while keeping Europe’s economy open to partners around the world.
The package includes two legislative proposals, the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act, as well as the Open Source Strategy and a Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence in Energy. Commission executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen said Europe needs to be in control of its data, supply chains and future in a clean and sustainable way, while strengthening digital autonomy and resilience.
The Chips Act 2.0 is designed to build on Europe’s strengths, including in mainstream chips, and build capacity in cutting-edge semiconductor technologies that power Artificial Intelligence applications. It will speed up permitting, deepen cooperation with like-minded partners and introduce a new excellence label for Europe’s semiconductor regions. The proposal also takes an ecosystem approach intended to bring European chipmakers closer to customers in growth sectors such as data centres, cloud providers and Artificial Intelligence Gigafactories, while supporting investment and strategic projects and addressing vulnerabilities that could put supply at risk.
The Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Development Act aims to triple data centre capacity in Europe over the next five to seven years and strengthen the role of the Apply Artificial Intelligence strategy to boost adoption. The Act will support research and innovation in cutting-edge and sustainable technologies, while balancing Artificial Intelligence ambitions with climate commitments. It will streamline conditions for deploying data centres across the EU, with a focus on highly sustainable and innovative facilities at the scale needed for the green and digital twin transition, and introduce a single EU-wide framework to assess cloud and Artificial Intelligence sovereignty.
The Open Source Strategy will scale up open source alternatives in priority areas including cloud, Artificial Intelligence, internet technologies, cybersecurity and semiconductors. The energy roadmap sets out how Artificial Intelligence and other digital solutions can support sustainable integration of digital infrastructure in Europe’s energy system and make that system more efficient. The legislative proposals will now be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union before adoption and entry into force.
