You’ll get to give feedback on the guidelines for classifying high-risk AI systems sometime this month, the Commission told me. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/commission-fails-to-produce-high-risk-ai-guidelines-on-time/

My plea to European politicians to at least be present on a European social network – which already exists today. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/the-brief-if-youre-tired-of-truth-social-try-mastodating/

Have a look at which EU lawmakers will be working on the AI omnibus – and trying to finish Parliament’s report within less than two months. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/parliament-assembles-ai-omnibus-team-eyes-quick-process/

Startups, scientists and satellite producers will profit from today’s trade deal with India, says @EUCommission – plus, maybe it’ll save your e-mail inbox from some spam. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/eu-and-india-to-work-together-on-startups-and-research/

Cyprus seems to have heard the protests against exempting some high-risk AI systems from having to register in an EU database. Let’s simplify the process instead, a first Council compromise text on the AI omnibus now proposes. Read my article at @euractiv […]

AI is making its way into Europe’s administrations – provoking the same questions around sovereignty that have accompanied public cloud deals for years. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/how-europes-governments-are-using-genai/

Authors, artists and other creatives are still not happy with the situation around copyright and AI, spotlighted by info on training data which is currently still missing in action. Read my article at @euractiv […]

Countries are seeing eye to eye on many parts of the AI omnibus package. But one of the Commission’s proposals – exempting some companies building AI systems from having to register them in an EU database – is more controversial. Read my article at @euractiv […]

Companies releasing new AI models need to publish info on what data they used to train them under EU rules. But that info seems to be missing for several large AI models released since last August. Read my article at @euractiv […]

The @EUCommission is drafting guidelines to temporarily stand in for the much-delayed AI Act standards, should they still not be ready for their yet-to-be-formally-delayed 2027 deadline. Read my article at @euractiv […]

The Grok scandal keeps heating up. Now @EUCommission President Ursula von der Leyen herself is hitting out at Elon Musk allowing women and children to be digital undressed on his platform – and threatening EU action. Read my article at @euractiv […]

The @EUCommission will soon present “a combination of funding and policy measures” to support European open source projects in becoming commercially viable alternatives to proprietary US tech. Read my article at @euractiv […]

The US might soon get access to Europeans’ biometric data – like fingerprints and facial scans – which it wants to keep allowing visa-free travel to the country. EU governments have already given their OK to start talks. Read my article at @euractiv […]

Three-euro customs fees are coming for your cheap online orders – but only in July, so no worries for this Christmas. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/cheap-parcels-to-face-e3-charge-at-eu-border-from-july-2026/

New EU competition case against Google just dropped. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/commission-investigates-google-over-training-ai-without-paying-creators/

Germany’s Karsten Wildberger played the role of lead hawk on further simplifying the EU’s tech rules on Friday. Some countries backed him up, others urged caution. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/councils-simplification-hawks-smell-blood-on-ripping-up-tech-rules/

An EU employment law planned for next year could look at AI managing workers and remote work, the @EUCommission said today – details to be decided. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/commission-could-propose-rules-for-ai-bosses-and-remote-work-next-year/

A group of lawmakers has called on the European Parliament to use more EU software and hardware, namechecking a whole host of solutions which they say can replace the current – dominantly US – tech suite. Read my article at @euractiv […]

After months of debate, the @EUCommission has officially proposed delaying rules for high-risk AI systems. That’ll now kick off new months of debate in Council and especially in Parliament. Read my article at @euractiv […]

Don’t make predictions about what AI will be able to do next year based on what tech CEOs say, a group of scientists has told @EUCommission President Ursula von der Leyen. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/stop-overhyping-ai-scientists-tell-von-der-leyen/

No word yet on whether the EU’s rules for high-risk AI systems will be delayed, according to a draft of the upcoming digital omnibus I’ve gotten my hands on. Read my article at @euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/news/commission-is-eyeing-further-centralising-ai-oversight/

The International Criminal Court will replace Microsoft’s Office with Open Desk, an open source European alternative, the court confirmed today. Read my article at @euractiv : https://www.euractiv.com/news/international-criminal-court-to-ditch-microsoft-office-for-european-open-source-alternative/

France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands today got the @EUCommission's go-ahead to together build sovereign digital infrastructure in areas like AI, cloud, cybersecurity – and, curiously, social networks. Read my article at @euractiv […]

EU countries will tomorrow give input on which parts of the AI Act they would like to “simplify”, according to a Council discussion note obtained by Euractiv. Read my story at @euractiv: https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-danes-ask-for-countries-ai-act-simplification-wish-lists/

Tired of years-long debates about whether European administrations are too dependent on US software? Have a read about a German state busy at work replacing Microsoft Office with open alternatives. Read my article at @euractiv […]

The @EUCommission is apparently working on a response to @StopKillingGames, a citizen initiative that wants to force video game developers to keep their games playable. The problem: It’s a non-binding legal act, just a step up from a press release. Supporters of the initiative are not happy […]

Hello everyone. I'll be working as tech reporter at @euractiv from now on, focussing on the digital single market, start-ups, AI, open source and cybersecurity. Please reach out at [email protected] for a coffee if you're interested in any of those fields.

The EU has been heavily involved in #opensource for years – but planned changes to the flagship funding programme are ruffling some feathers, especially because they have remained vague for months. @netzpolitik_feed is publishing an internal document that at least gives a few hints to where the […]

The @EUCommission doesn't want to say anything about whether it plans to introduce #buyeuropean rules for when EU authorities procure software, cloud etc. Too early in the review process, spokesperson said just now. #eurostack

There’s a discussion brewing in Brussels – a discussion about whether European public authorities should be forced to buy part of their digital needs from European companies. First off, no, you’re not hallucinating, this is the same discussion that Europe is currently also having in regard to […]

In the last few months, many people have called on the EU to start supporting open alternatives to US-owned social media sites. The thing is: The EU has been doing that for some time already. It has financed, among others, ActivityPub, Mastodon and PeerTube. For @netzpolitik_feed, we spoke to […]

In den letzten Monaten haben viele Menschen gefordert, die EU sollte doch mal bitte offene Alternativen zu amerikanischen Social-Media-Diensten fördern. Die Sache ist nur: Das tut sie schon lange. ActivityPub, Mastodon und PeerTube haben alle von einem EU-Förderprogramm profitiert. Für […]

Apropos nothing in particular, I've launched a "wake-up call for Europe" tracker. Full inspiration goes to Jörg Lau. Let's see how long I can keep it going. Glad about any suggestions for articles to add, especially in languages other than English. https://maxhenning.eu/wake-up-call/

Anyone looking for a ticket for today's Carneval party in the NRW representation in #brussels? I bought one but am sadly sick today. Would give it up for 20€. Let me know if you're interested

Europe’s digital economy has many well-diagnosed problems – but over the years, countless initiatives to fix some of them have met with little success. A new idea is currently coalescing in Brussels, trying for a broader approach. Its name: The #eurostack.

Highly agree. There's tons of stories to tell in Brussels that matter, especially in the digital area. Unlike national capitals, the EU actually still has a bit of power left. But not enough people are looking at it - we need more journalists here […]

The European Court of Auditors published an interesting report on #geoblocking in the #eu yesterday. The EU is supposed to have a common market, where goods, services and money flow freely – but this report shows that in the digital world, that often isn’t the case […]

Today, I have a story about two things that happened on December 6 of the last year. They have to do with one topic: How well can the #eu defend itself?

hmm https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/13/fact-sheet-ensuring-u-s-security-and-economic-strength-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/

The #eu Commission has a long, long list of digital projects. I took a good look at what’s supposed to come in the next weeks – and which projects might still take a bit longer. In January and February, we will probably see a European Action Plan to improve the #cybersecurity of hospitals and […]

If you want to found a #startup in #europe, there are still a lot of hurdles to clear. One of them: The mass of regulations different from #eu member state to member state. An initiative by the name of #euinc has proposed a common company form to solve at least part of that problem. In their […]

If you're working in the @EUCommission and you want to post ads on an online platform that specifically target people based on their political views: Don't. #privacy #dataprotection #eu The @EDPS_supervisor has just said that the Commission acted illegally when it did exactly that for its […]

Does the free market encourage enough innovation in #ai safety? No, says a new report from German research institute ZEW published today. It calls for a new #eu support programme to fund this research into reliable and safe AI. The authors want the EU to set certain milestones and then pay […]

I've created a #starterpack for European media on Mastodon: https://fedidevs.com/s/ODk/ Tries to get the biggest voices, for an easy overview over what's going on in our continent. If possible in English. Pretty limited so far, please let me know who else I should add. #starterpacks #eu […]

What should the future of the European #telecoms sector look like? The #eu Commission opened this debate with a white paper back in February, on Friday the Council agreed on its version. And it couldn't be much more different from what the Commission imagined. The Commission imagines a more […]

I'm at the conference of the #europeanunion 's organisation tasked with researching and producing #Chips. The panels are interesting, but the gender quota on them is, well...

On Tuesday, the #eu Agency for #cybersecurity published its first report on the state of cybersecurity in the union: https://enisa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-11/2024%20Report%20on%20the%20State%20of%20the%20Cybersecurity%20in%20the%20Union.pdf Overall score: 62,25 out of 100. What […]

There was some confusion in the last days about #bluesky and the #digitalservicesact, the #eu's big social media law. Several outlets reported on an EU Commission statement, saying that Bluesky needed to publicly say how many users it has. #dsa Here's two stories of those stories: - […]

#EuroHPC is the European organisation for #supercomputers, run by EU, participating states and private partners. They're all set to chip in to finance Europe's leading computers and programs giving access to them. But last week, the European Court of Auditors published a report criticising one […]

Ich habe mich in den letzten zwei Wochen mehrere Male drei Stunden lang in stickigen Sitzungsräumen eingeschlossen. Da konnte ich den Leuten zuhören, die bald wahrscheinlich Europas Digitalpolitik lenken werden. Meine Eindrücke bei @netzpolitik_feed […]