Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for tech sovereignty, security and democracy defended Europe’s ambitions in terms of competitiveness and legislation in the field of advanced technologies to MEPs on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).
The European Commissioner noted the rather long list of future regulations and acts planned by the Commission in order to regain a foothold in the global technological race: the reform of European telecommunications (known as the ‘Digital Network Act’, the regulation on the development of AI and cloud computing (‘AI and Cloud Development Act’’), an act on quantum research (‘Quantum Act’), the establishment of “AI factories”, etc.
This regulatory initiative will be based on existing legislation, in particular the three regulations on digital services (DSA), digital markets (DMA) and artificial intelligence (AI Act).
Once again, many MEPs have warned that the European Union needs to better define its competitiveness objectives and translate them into clear actions, so that it is not just a “regulator” in the face of innovators such as China and the United States.
“There is no miracle solution”, admitted the Commissioner. But we have a large industrial base in Europe, which is performing well and which should help us to move forward.
In particular, she cited the need to have “European alternatives in the field of ‘cloud’ information”, access to data, AI research, and to strive to be “more attractive to investors and capital” as well as to new technology talent.
The great DSA debate. Taking the recent Romanian elections as an example (see EUROPE 13533/21), several MEPs called on the Commissioner to show more determination in implementing the DSA.
Faced with the Green MEPs who demanded clarification on the progress of the investigation into TikTok, Ms Virkkunen made it clear: “What happened in Romania was something we had never seen before. We suspected manipulation, which is why we asked TikTok to retain its data” (see EUROPE 13539/10).
It turns out that the platform has not been completely transparent about the type of content it allows. “There was indeed paid content and political advertising, contrary to what TikTok claimed”, said the Commissioner, estimating that certain parts of the investigation could be “closed very soon”.
She also denied the accusations of censorship made by some radical right-wing MEPs and pointed out that the Commission had opened numerous investigations against platforms that continue to fail to meet their legal obligations, “particularly in terms of the transparency of their algorithms”. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)