Virkunnen ends: this is a defining moment for Europe's future: a future where our factories can run on european compute, our hospitals are free to choose ai developed in europe, our innovators can use european software to develop ideas, our startups can grow into global champions right here in europe.

This is a choice we must make now together.

She hands the floor to the EU's energy commissioner.⬇️

Dan opens by highlighting the energy cost of AI, but says that if we want to be leaders, we need to ensure it brings positive change in our societies: we need to do this in a European way.

We need to manage new energy demand in a responsible way while making the best of the new opportunities at our fingertips.

He says, "There can be no digital sovereignty without energy sovereignty".
⬇️

He highlights the issue of Datacenter energy consumption at a time when we need to electrify our whole economy, saying in 2024 datacentrers in the EU currently use enough power to power 20mn households, by 2030 this demand is expected to more than double⬇️

Announces a European rating scheme for datacenters. The Commission focus will be on grid integration, clean supply and flexibility, together with water use and environmental standards.

The goal: grow digital economies without raising energy costs.

Good news: AI can also be used to help steer and control generation. Digitalisation of grid can bring a lot of benefits.

Also highlights how demand flexibility can cut bills⬇️

Calls to accelerate the rollout of smart meters and smart grids across the Union.

Announces the development of an AI model for the energy sector and a EU framework for cross-border energy data exchange, to make the grid more flexible.

"This can help deliver savings across europe".

He also raises the issue of the cybersecurity of energy installations.⬇️

Question time! ⬇️

The Guardian: What is the scale of the Commission's ambition on semiconductors ? What does it look like ? 1/3 ? 50%? What about the strategic project on advanced manufacturing of AI chips?

Virkkunen: Quantity matters but quality is also important, we are already good at this, but we will focus on investing on design capacity and manufacturing in the future. Aim for pilot phase in 2030. The new chips act focusses more on the demand side, pushes use of European chips⬇️

Luca from Euronews: on the AI envoy announcement: why did you choose to create the post?

(fyi: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/es/ip_26_1243)

Virkkunen: focus will be industrial AI.

(this is good news in my opinion: a focus on industrial AI will actually provide return on investment, unlike LLMs! See this article: https://jmar.is/jekyll/update/2025/10/13/How-Europe-wins-the-AI-race.html )

back to tech.

Contexte: Cloud and AI development act will require risk assessments for public admins on cloud. Commission will issue guidance to help member states. Regulation talks about implementing acts from which member states can diverge. How much can commission harmonise evaluations? Does the commission want to? What about the cost of switching to sovereign cloud providers? Have you assessed the cost of switching?"

reply in next post ⬇️

Virkkunen: a definition of sovereign cloud across the union is needed, that's why we have 4-tiered definition. When it comes to the risk itself, member states do know best though. If this doesn't work, though, then we can take more action.

On costs: it depends on the member states risk assessments, and the services they are currently using. From our experience in the Commisssion, EU cloud providers aren't necessarily more expensive ⬇️

It's especially important that Europeans data is in Europe.

It is true that there is a lot of uncertainty which is why this is needed.

At the same time we want to work very closely with our trusted partners in the future.

On the economic cost: for now, these risk assessments are for government not companies, but we do encourage companies to too.

⬇️

Euronews: on Killswitches, it hasn't happened, so how present to you is the threat? Have you wargamed a scenario where this happens?

Virkkunen: we know how important a role these technologies play, we are not at war but we are not in peacetime. we are facing many threats, and need to plan for crisis situations. Our operations are digitalised so we must be able to control the tools we use, especially in crisis situations.
⬇️

Question from politico on energy: will nuclear be included ? Are smartmeters going to require people to use less energy in evenings?

Jann: no, smartmeters are for measuring, but they can help us save in households.
labels will reflect technological neutrality (so nuclear will be in, likely). On an unrelated note, he calls for reuse of heat from datacentres for home heating ⬇️

First thoughts after the conference

The Choice of the European Commission to appoint Jim Hagemann Snabe, the chairman of Siemens, as its AI envoy, seems to hint at a focus on Industrial AI rather than LLMs.

At a time when the return on investment on Generative #AI is unclear, a focus on AI with a clear potential for ROI is the right move!

I wrote about this in October last year! ⬇️

https://jmar.is/jekyll/update/2025/10/13/How-Europe-wins-the-AI-race.html

Q: CAIDA will mean datacentres have an overridding public interest, meaning they can get around some environmental/permitting rules, is that not incompatible for sustainability of datacentres?

Jann: it will be made sustainable by the norms and standards we create.⬇️

Question: Elephant in the room: how much of this is driven by the #Trump admin.
Some have worried the push for tech sovereignty comes at an economic cost? What would you say to them?

Virkkunen: we aren't planning to go into isolation, but it is important to identify the parts where we have risky dependencies and how we address those risks. We have to continue operations no matter the circumstances!⬇️

Politico: on Trusted Partners: can the US administration "exercise control over cloud providers or compel them to disrupt continuity?" (a criteria for the 3rd level of tech sovereignty in CAIDA)

Virkkunen: from level 3 upwards, the criteria are strict, we want to make sure there are no kill switches. With the US's cloud act, it's difficult for US providers to reach level 3.⬇️

Matthew, Mlex: follow up on trusted partner: is the fear about the CLOUD act specifically about government intereference? The Commission aim for a wider European cybersecurity certificate, when might you do that?

Virkunnen: ENISA is working on a cloud certification scheme, and the Cyber Security Act is under revision now. The clouid & AI dev act exists to define what sovereign cloud means. Most of the cases will be level 1 and level 2, but critical ones will be higher ⬇️

Theo, Euractiv: Sovereignty Criterea level 3, there is a capacity to designate trusted partners, you just said it would be hard for US companies to reach this level. Does that mean the US will not be designated as a trusted partner?

Virkkunen: I'm not the one who is auditing this, but I said that with the CLOUD act it's difficult to reach this (Really good to see virkkunen giving a clear answer on this).

The press conference is now over! I'll publish some takeaways later! 🫡

The #EU is about to release its #Tech #Sovereignty package. You can listen to @HennaVirkkunen 's press conference here.

I'll be livetooting in this thread as soon as it gets started 🧵 ⬇️

https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/ebs/grid?ebs=yes&ebsplus=yes&date=20260603

#EUpol #OpenSource

We've noted a significant part of Open Washing in the AI space is models with proprietary licences claiming they are Open Weights.

This undermines the term "Open Weights" so our first step was to propose a category below that, and require that Open Weights AI be published under an Open Licence.

While Open Weights Models aren't Open Source, we believe clarity on terms is still important, and when models are distributed under Open Source licences, they still give the user more freedom.

⬇️