The Tech Brief

Brussels boots on the ground in San Francisco

The European Commission is currently engaged in "direct" and "intensive" collaboration with California legislators, who have just approved a new AI bill that could "strengthen" and "complement" the EU’s AI regulation. In today's episode, we learn how the Commission works in California and explore whether the US state could prove an important ally in the EU’s efforts to enforce its new digital rulebook. Join Tech Reporter Jacob Wulff Wold as he sits down with Gerard de Graaf, senior EU envoy to t...

Elon Musk's Brat Summer

English singer Charli XCX’s new album, "Brat," is making waves, and Elon Musk, with his legal battles, clashes with the EU, and endorsement of Donald Trump, seems to embody the “brat” vibe. Did you miss the summer drama? Euractiv’s tech team has you covered.

Dissecting Apple's compliance with EU digital competition rules from a civil society perspective

A group of digital rights organisation said that Apple’s plans to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are ineffective in a submission to the European Commission. The EU executive has opened three non-compliance investigations into Apple’s plans to conform to the DMA, the bloc’s landmark digital competition law. In one of these investigations, the Commission said in preliminary findings that the company is in breach of the DMA with its App Store policies. We are joined by Simonetta Vezzoso,...

Europe’s quest for critical raw materials

The EU has set ambitious goals for securing its supply of critical raw materials, which are key to the digital and green transitions. Today we talk to Chad Blewitt, managing director of the Jadar Project, a highly-anticipated and highly-delayed lithium mining site in Serbia. Jadar is operated by Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest mining company. Can the goals set by the Critical Raw Materials Act be achieved by 2030, and, crucially, how important is cutting red tape to achieving these goals?...

The preamble to Meta’s decision to halt AI launch in EU

On Friday afternoon, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced it is pausing plans to roll out artificial intelligence (AI) features that would use users’ public posts to train its AI models. The company cited a request from the Irish Data Protection Commission. Digital rights NGO Noyb filed 11 complaints against Meta’s AI plans in Europe earlier that week, asking for an urgency procedure.This week, we speak to Noyb founder and lawyer Max Schrems about why they filed the comp...

How consumer protections can be enhanced in e-commerce

This week, together with Marco Scialdone, a lawyer and adjunct professor of law and management of digital content and services at the European University of Rome, we delve into the impact of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) on consumer protection in e-commerce, focusing on the responsibilities of online marketplaces and the role of consumer organisations like Euroconsumers in ensuring product safety.

The Commission’s coordination failures in AI investment

The European Commission kicked off plans to boost investments in its AI sector back in 2018. But they were neither clearly defined, nor well coordinated, argued the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in a report released this week. The gap of investments and innovation has only grown with the US since these plans were put in motion, research has found. This week we talk to Mihails Kozlovs, a member of the ECA who led the report, about what it means for the future....

The AI Convention on Human Rights: Worth the hype?

The Council of Europe, the bloc's human rights body, adopted its first framework convention on artificial intelligence (AI_, democracy and the rule of law on 17 May. It's heralded as the world's first binding international treaty to ensure the technology doesn't interfere with human rights. But the negotiations were riddled with criticism, particularly around the treatment of the private sector. We are joined by Hanne Juncher, Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law of the Council of Eur...

The Pertsev case: A tornado for decentralized and open-source software in the Netherlands?

Tornado Cash co-founder Alexey Pertsev was sentenced to a little over five months in jail this week by a Dutch court, for helping to create a tool that obfuscates the trail of cryptocurrencies. The tool, built and run on Ethereum blockchain, was used by hackers to launder their illicitly obtained funds. The defense argued that this was a decentralized, open-source tool, and that they had little control over its use to launder millions, possibly billions of funds by criminals. We are joined by Da...

APT28: The EU’s battle against Russian cyberattacks

Following the EU and NATO condemning Russian cyber espionage group APT28 last week, we talked to independent cyber policy expert Pavlina Pavlova about APT28’s methods, the EU’s response, and what the possible next steps are.

Does the AI liability directive provide enough harmonisation?

This week, we are discussing the artificial intelligence liability directive (AILD), a key part of the EU's continuously evolving digital rulebook. The AILD is expected to fill an important legislative gap that will allow consumers to seek compensation for damages caused by AI products. We are joined by Beatrice Schütte, postdoc researcher at the University of Helsinki and the University of Lapland, and Shu Li, Assistant Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Letta's tech insights: Taking a dive into the report

This week, together with Andrea Renda, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the CEPS Unit on Global Governance, Regulation, Innovation and the Digital Economy, we break down the Letta report's key technological insights, what is missing from the document, and what to anticipate from the report by Mario Draghi. Enrico Letta, a former Italian Prime Minister, whom European leaders asked to write a report on the state of the EU’s single market, published his findings last week, while former president ...

Between privacy and border control: Tech in the Migration Pact

Last week, the EU Parliament voted to pass amendments to Eurodac, previously a fingerprints database, along with a new Migration Pact to boost border security. The expansion of Eurodac will see migrants’ biometric data, including facial images, collected and stored for 10 years and exchanged between police and border authorities. This includes children as young as six years old.On today’s podcast, rapporteur for the file, MEP Jorge Buxade Villalba said why he thinks regulation is necessary — and...

Does the EU need to go further in competition policy for tech?

This week we talk to Max von Thun, Europe Director at the Open Markets Institute about competition policy.Amid a barrage of measures and investigations on digital competition in recent weeks, the think tank co-authored a manifesto calling for a revamp of competition policy, including structural changes within the Commission. Crucial to those is a change in culture within the executive, but is it tenable?

The view from Beijing on DMA, AI Act

EU Ombudsman on EU Commission’s delays in Access to Documents requests

This week, we talk to the European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, about the European Commission’s delays in responding to Access to Documents requests, their impact on EU citizens, artificial intelligence, and more.

2024 cybersecurity landscape: heightened risks on the horizon

This week, together with Pavlina Pavlova, Public Policy Advisor at the CyberPeace Institute, we look at cybersecurity issues, such as the 2024 Munich Security Report's revelation of heightened cyber-attack risks, the phone hacking of the European Parliament's defence committee, predictions for the upcoming European Parliament elections, and the United Nations Cybercrime Convention. This week's episode was recorded at the Fundamental Rights Forum, which took place in Vienna on the 11th and 12th o...

Data protection in the EU: Children, migrants, and EU Commission

This week, together with the European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski, we look at data protection issues, including the regulation concerning the detection and removal of online child sexual abuse material, as well as Frontex’s handling of migrants’ data, and the recent news regarding the European Commission's violation of data protection rules in its use of Microsoft. This week's episode was recorded at the Fundamental Rights Forum, which took place in Vienna on the 11th and 12...

Mergers and partnerships: 2024’s successes, surprises, and failures so far

How social media is shaping the 2024 EU elections

Together with Katja Muñoz, research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology, we talk about the impact of social media and technology on the 2024 European Parliament elections, TikTok and Meta’s election preparations, the lack of access for data for researchers, and even Taylor Swift.

Diving into the resilience and security issues of the EU's submarine recommendation

As the security and resilience of submarine cables became a priority for Europe after the sabotage of a cable between Finland and Estonia in October 2023, EU countries requested the Commission to take action. The EU executive published a recommendation on 21 February, that we are analysing with to our invitee of the week, Louis Obry, public affairs officer at Europacable, the industry association of Europe’s wire and cable producers.

The UN Cybercrime Convention in review

With Nick Ashton-Hart, Senior Director at APCO Worldwide and Head of Delegation for the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, we take a look at the progress of the negotiations on the UN Convention on Cybercrime and the concluding session, which ended with a suspension on Friday (9 February).

AI Act accomplished, Germany left with unanswered questions

With Klaus Landefeld, Vice Chairman of the Management Board at the Association of the Internet Industry (eco), we discuss the outcome of the AI Act and its implications for Germany. One point of discussion is real-time biometric surveillance, which was previously excluded by the federal government in its coalition agreement.

On the path to UN’s Global Digital Compact

As the United Nations are preparing to adopt the Global Digital Compact later this year, we discussed this initiative with Tech Envoy Amandeep Singh Gill and what it means for internet governance, Artificial Intelligence and the EU’s international projection on digital policy.

The AI Act in perspective

As the AI Act’s text is finally consolidate, we tried to put the landmark law in a broader perspective with Luciano Floridi, leading expert in AI ethics and Founding Director of Yale’s Digital Ethics Center.

The EU’s future computing ecosystem

Joined by Gustav Kalbe previous head of unit for Quantum and now acting director for this research field, we talk about the EU’s plans to build a future ecosystem of super- and quantum computers. This podcast episode also dives into the role of the European sovereignty and standards-setting for post-quantum cryptography.

The UK’s move in competition policy

Since Brexit, the UK Competition and Markets Authority has regained its status as a prominent competition enforcer. As the British Parliament is set to adopt a bill that will increase the CMA’s powers and introduce new obligations on tech companies, we discussed with Verity Egerton Doyle and William Leslie, partners in Linklaters' Antitrust & Foreign Investment practice, the prospects of competition policy on the other side of the Channel, as well as potential tensions and similarities with ...

Data competition: EU’s year in review and what lies ahead

With Aline Blankertz, Policy and Public Sector Officer at Wikimedia, we have a look at the big events that happened in the areas of data policy and competition in 2023 and discuss the EU's future and biggest challenges for 2024. We also dive into the developments of the Data Act and the Digital Markets Act as well as the EU’s approach to personal health data and data on businesses trade secrets.

AI Act’s post-agreement commentary

Following the political agreement on the AI Act last week, we caught up with Kris Shrishak, a Enforce Senior Fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, and Philipp Hacker, Chair for Law and Ethics of the Digital Society at the European New School of Digital, Studies to discuss the deal in detail.

MEP Sophie in 't Veld stresses keeping spyware discussions in EU Parliament

This week, we talked to MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld who has been spearheading the work of the Pegasus investigation in the European Parliament’s already disbanded Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware. In ‘t Veld told Euractiv that no new Committee will be set up. However, the Dutch MEP is running for another term in the European Parliament and said she will keep pursuing the topic if gets elected again, but hopes that someone will do so in case she...