Europe plans ‘AI strategy’ to rely less on US, China for technology

The European Union (EU) is preparing to launch a strategy aimed at reducing its reliance on foreign artificial intelligence (AI) providers and promoting European-made AI platforms, as concerns mount over the bloc's technological dependence on the US and China, a report has said. According to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times, the European Commission's new “Apply AI strategy” emphasises security, resilience and industrial competitiveness by accelerating the development and adoption of homegrown AI technologies. The strategy is set to be presented by EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen on Tuesday, the report said.

EU to focus on tech independence

The draft proposal warns that “external dependencies of the AI stack”—the infrastructure and software needed to build, train and manage AI applications—”can be weaponised” by both state and non-state actors, posing risks to supply chains.

The Commission aims to “strengthen EU AI sovereignty” by promoting policies to “accelerate the adoption of European scalable and replicable generative AI solutions in public administrations,” according to the draft.

Targeted sectors of AI tech

The strategy highlights the need to improve AI usage in critical sectors including healthcare, defense and manufacturing. To implement these initiatives, the Commission is mobilising 1 billion euros from existing financing programmes.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at an event Friday that the bloc wants to “speed up AI adoption across the board” through the Apply AI strategy to ensure Europe doesn't fall behind in the new technology.

The bloc plans to prioritise implementation of European AI-enabled tools in defense. Brussels intends to "accelerate the development and deployment of European AI-enabled" command and control (C2) capabilities—systems used to instruct troops and manage battlefield operations.

The Commission also wants to "support the development of sovereign frontier models" for space defense technology.