Although their debate on the EU’s competitiveness was largely overshadowed by the impact of the war in the Middle East on energy costs (see other news), on Thursday 19 March in Brussels, the EU27 reiterated the guidelines set out in Alden Biesen (see EUROPE 13807/1) for removing obstacles in the internal market and stepping up work on simplifying legislation.
In their conclusions, they set the EU’s co-legislators a precise timetable for completing key initiatives such as the proposal for a 28th Regime for company law (see EUROPE 13831/8), which must be adopted by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament by the end of the year. By the end of June 2026, they will also have to have released the electronic declaration for the posting of workers.
The leaders also set the end of the year as the deadline for adopting the draft regulation on the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), as well as the ‘securitisation’, ‘supplementary pensions’ and ‘market integration and supervision’ aspects of the Savings and Investments Union.
While relatively tense discussions had been anticipated on the concept of European preference in critical industrial sectors, formalised by the IAA, the exchanges were ultimately rather fluid.
Reforming the rules on AI? France, which welcomed a “proactive agenda” in the words of its President, Emmanuel Macron, took the opportunity to reiterate that it would like to extend the scope of the regulation to key sectors such as artificial intelligence, cloud and space-related technologies.
“It was important for us not just to postpone things for two or three years, but to do everything we could this year”, summed up German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also “called for the theme of digital innovation and artificial intelligence ‘Made in Europe’ to be included in the conclusions”.
To achieve this, “the European Union’s regulatory framework needs to be changed again”, added the Chancellor, who “received broad support on this issue”. “There is a relatively long list of proposals from the sector, particularly from start-ups wishing to work with this technology. This is why we have given the Commission a general mandate to draw up a comprehensive report on the whole subject of artificial intelligence”.
Link to the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/l9l (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with the editorial staff)