Europe lowers its expectations again
The European Commission yesterday presented a new proposal in the digital sphere that significantly alters the regulations governing large technology companies and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors. Less than a year after the approval of the AI Act, a global milestone, a postponement of its implementation for a year and a half has already been requested for some aspects that were due to come into force this August. All of this is happening against the backdrop of constant reversals by Ursula von der Leyen's government in different areas, including environmental policy, and the lack of momentum behind the Draghi report regarding the bulk of its proposals. It is difficult not to link these shifts in policy to the demands of Donald Trump and the large technology companies, which are driving the growth of the United States. These companies have long complained about what they consider excessive European regulation, to the point that the US president – who has already secured multi-million dollar purchases of weapons, fuel and other products from Europe – had threatened more tariffs if the requirements for his technology companies were not lowered.
But this worrying subservience of Europe to the US is not the only reason for the EU's regulatory cuts, which until now had been the major global benchmark for other countries. Large European companies and various political movements also felt that Brussels had focused too much on regulation and too little on investment. This, they argued, has meant that the bureaucratic labyrinth for European companies, and for foreign companies wanting to invest, reduces their competitiveness and causes them to lose ground in the technological race, especially now that AI is arriving to change everything.
Indeed, there have been calls for greater simplification of bureaucracy for some time now, in all sectors, as it is one of the major burdens on the European economy in general. The proposal presented yesterday, which the European Parliament and member states will now have to validate, has some interesting points in this regard, especially concerning the reduction of controls on European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which will not have to submit as much paperwork. Brussels' stated objective is to make European companies more competitive with the United States and China in the field of AI, an area in which they lag far behind, with significantly lower levels of investment. This makes sense in terms of reducing bureaucracy and facilitating greater investment in this area, which should be a priority. It is more difficult to understand, however, why the control of key elements, such as the creation of fake profiles of real people and the monitoring of racial or gender discrimination in the use of AI for recruitment, to name just two examples, is being postponed. The new regulations will need to be carefully studied to see what will be most affected, but in a field like technology—where everything moves at breakneck speed and where it's very difficult to control its dissemination and use—weakening controls doesn't exactly seem like a good idea. Precisely now is the time to set limits, because in a year and a half it will surely be too late.
