The EU’s tech pivot gets both applause and criticism

A daily download of the topics driving the tech policy agenda, from Brussels to London to Silicon Valley.

By PIETER HAECK

with MATHIEU POLLET and ELIZA GKRITSI

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— The European Commission was eager to show the AI Action Summit in Paris that it’s open for business. Not everyone liked that pitch.

— World leaders are not so worried about AI risks. They are worried about losing the global AI race.

— Cloud wars continue to rage.

Good morning and welcome to Morning Tech. Pieter speaking to you — still out of Paris.

As always, send the hottest tech policy news and gossip to Pieter, Mathieu and Eliza.

THE EU’S TECH PIVOT GETS CHEERS AND BOOS: The European Commission was very eager to show it is open for (artificial intelligence) business in Paris, with a multi-billion euro investment plan and the promise to have “innovation-friendly” rules. 

Not everyone liked that pitch. 

Recap: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had quite the Tuesday morning in Paris: she first had to listen to U.S. Vice President JD Vance calling out the Digital Services Act as “onerous.” After that, she took the stage herself, with a bold €200 billion AI investment plan. She also doubled down on cutting red tape, a promise earlier made by her tech czar Henna Virkkunen. Read more here.

A regulatory simplification package for digital is now set for the fourth quarter of this year, according to the Commission’s work plan published late Tuesday.

Cheers: 

— AI companies were happy to learn about the investment and regulation pledges. Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief lobbyist, said he had taken note of von der Leyen’s message during a huddle with reporters at an event space tucked away in Paris’ 13th department. 

He underlined the importance of the right regulatory framework for companies like OpenAI to plunge money into infrastructure in Europe. There is a “real desire to be able to do infrastructure in Germany, France and the U.K.,” he said. 

“But attracting the global capital to invest in infrastructure in those places is really going to require a regulatory framework here that will allow for this part of the world to be able to develop and build its own AI ecosystem so that the economic model can justify the investment into that infrastructure.” 

Boos: 

— The EU’s plan to simplify its AI rules landed less well with digital rights groups. 

“Virkkunen is caving in on pushback against EU’s tech laws,” said Blue Duangdjai Tiyavorabun, policy adviser at EDRi. 

With the promise to include AI rules in the simplification package, “she fuels deregulation, appeases U.S. and tech corporations, while ruining civil society’s few, but hard-won human rights victories in the AI Act,” Tiyavorabun said. 

Speaking about AI simplification — AI liability rules axed: The EU’s highly contested AI liability rules will be withdrawn by the European Commission, the EU’s executive said in the annexes to its work program, published late on Tuesday. The rulebook on standard essential patents will also never reach the finish line.

HOW THE WORLD STARTED WORRYING ABOUT AI: The official part of the AI Action Summit is over now, with many of the Tuesday evening afterparties coming to one general conclusion: AI safety was shunned at the event. World leaders were not so worried humanity might be made extinct by AI but they are deeply concerned about losing the global AI race. They focused on pledging or touting billions in investment and barely mentioned the word “safety” — to the dismay of those who fear AI’s existential risks and civil society groups. Read our wrap by our (by now knackered) team on the ground: Pieter Haeck, Tom Bristow and Océane Herrero.

REVIEW OF DAY TWO

What was good: 

— After a dull first day, we got the political drama we deserve, with Vance and von der Leyen making some big and bold statements.

— We applaud the venue choices of some AI companies: Anthropic drinks at the Ritz for example. 

What was bad: 

— The logistical chaos continued. There were long queues at startup hub Station F all day. 

— Your Morning Tech scribe lost two earbuds in the press center. Let me know if you find something, French government! 

Things you might have missed: The sniping between Elon Musk and Xavier Niel and between Musk and OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman. 

What to look out for today: The world leaders may be heading off but there’s still a high-profile event today at the American Cathedral in Paris with Google Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch (and your humble Morning Tech scribe).

CLOUD WARS: The comments by the European Cloud Competition Observatory — powered by Amazon-backed cloud association CISPE — about how tech giants Broadcom and Microsoft handle complaints about alleged unfair licensing practices haven’t gone unnoticed. 

A Broadcom spokesperson, whose company is accused of turning a blind eye to criticism of undue restrictions for its VMware software, told Morning Tech they “delivered on our commitment to make VMware easier to use” and pointed to their “customer retention rate [which] has remained consistent, demonstrating the value we’re delivering.”

There’s more: The observatory also looked into the commitments Microsoft made when it inked a truce with CISPE (before it formally joined the lobby group) and considered some of the promises were off-track. 

Told you so: The brand new Open Cloud Coalition, including Microsoft’s long-time cloud rival Google, was quick to weigh in. “CISPE’s settlement with Microsoft does nothing for the majority of European cloud customers,” said Nicky Stewart, a spokesperson for the association. “Despite claims of progress, nothing has actually changed in terms of fair software licensing for the broader market,” she added, stressing that “the only real option is urgent and robust antitrust enforcement that levels the playing field.” Google filed an antitrust complaint last year, asking the Commission to investigate Microsoft’s licensing contracts.

**Not in Munich for MSC? We’ve got you covered. POLITICO Pro Defense is reporting live from the ground, delivering expert analysis straight to your inbox. Start your free trial of our Pro Morning Defense newsletter and get exclusive access to our live debrief on Feb. 17. Register now.**

WANTED: FEEDBACK. The European Commission is fishing for insights as it prepares the evaluation of the bloc’s geoblocking rules this year. It opened a one-month-long consultation on Tuesday.

What’s that: The 2018 regulation targeted unjustified online restrictions for European consumers based on their nationality or place of residence — meaning you should, in theory, be able to buy any good or service across Europe seamlessly.

But, but, but: It came with a carve-out for audiovisual, allowing Netflix and others to restrict the availability of series for instance by country. The EU executive recently said it would be exploring whether to scrap that exemption — an option sure to enrage the European film industry, which sees geoblocking as vital to its sustainability and Europe’s cultural diversity.

DSA MEETING BARRAGE: It’s meeting week for the Digital Services Act community – as if listening to Vance’s threats wasn’t enough, with a Commission roundtable with the online advertising industry to discuss a potential code of conduct.

The Commission hasn’t decided if an instrument to outline requirements for advertising under the DSA is necessary, and whether that is to be done through a code of conduct, two people present at the roundtable told Morning Tech and granted anonymity to discuss the private discussion. Whether guidelines will be issued and what form they will take will be decided after a series of workshops, the people said.

Morning Tech saw part of the presentation the Commission gave on the workshops and here is what we found:

Another four workshops are planned for the next month; on March 4 around transparency in how data is used for ads, on March 6 on the transparency of ad placement, on March 13 around how malicious actors use ads to spread illegal content, including scams, and finally on March 19 on what transparency business users need.

KIDS SAFETY. Separately, the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU is hosting a workshop on making the online world safer for kids today. On the agenda is the fight against child sexual abuse online material and age-appropriate design. 

The age question. The Commission has been working on DSA guidelines for the protection of minors with a draft expected to land sometime in the first quarter of 2025. Age verification is at the crux of this debate and something Big Tech platforms disagree on. 

It’s complicated. Some, like Google, say that age verification should take place at the app level, whereas others, like Meta say it’s best done by app stores or operating systems. Meanwhile, civil society organizations say that solving the verification puzzle takes too much focus away from actually designing platforms in an age-appropriate way.

DRAWING THE MAP: If you scroll on Google Maps all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in search of tropical weather, you will see that “Gulf of America” has been added in parentheses. That’s because Google Maps changes on Monday for users outside the U.S. and Mexico, who will see the Gulf named after their country.

COMMISSION: Innovation chief Ekaterina Zaharieva meets with Yoo Sang-im, South Korea’s tech minister.

Maroš Šefčovič and Valdis Dombrovskis lay out the Commission’s 2025 work program at an 11:30 a.m. press conference.

PARLIAMENT: The plenary in Strasbourg continues.

COUNCIL: The Polish presidency hosts a workshop on protecting minors.

Elon Musk’s business empire scores benefits under Trump shake-up. NYT.

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