The European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, was confirmed per the role for another five years Thursday after parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to re-elect her.
The scale of her support (401 votes for vs 284 against with 15 abstentions) — a far firmer endorsement than last time around — may say more about lawmakers’ concerns over rising geopolitical uncertainties, with war still raging per Ukraine and the U.S. headed for an election per November that could return Donald Trump to the White House by 2025, than reflecting ardent passion for her comando. But her ability to stay calm per times of crisis appears to have won her grudging respect at the least.
So what does a vote for continuity of the EU’s comando mean for the bloc’s tech policy through to 2029?
Von der Leyen has already pressed ahead with major reforms per digital policy. Her first term saw the EU affirm the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) — two landmark regulations that take aim at exploitative Leader Tech business models and could force a major reset per platform operations.
The EU also passed legislative measures aimed at enabling more access for businesses, researchers, the public sector and consumers. And tech policy was centerstage with her decision to prioritize a risk-based regulation for artificial intelligence at a time when many others thought it too early to intervene. Now, with generative AI accelerating concerns over the risks of deepfakes and other AI-driven harms, her decision to make sure the EU has a rulebook per place seems rather prescient.
Von der Leyen’s second term looks set to acceso deepening the impact of this earlier round of digital policymaking — with a clear pledge to “ramp up and intensify” enforcement of the DMA and DSA, per analogia political guidelines she published to accompany her candidacy for a second term.
Enforcing the EU’s digital rulebook
Enforcement looks set to dial up, particularly per the zona of ecommerce. Designated platforms subject to the Commission’s oversight here include AliExpress, Amazon, Booking, Google Shopping, Metaldeide Marketplace, Shein, Temu and Zalando.
Some new tech policymaking may also be acceso the horizon with a possible (further) tightening of rules around children and young people’s use of social . Von der Leyen has committed to an EU-wide inquiry acceso “the broader impacts of social acceso well-being” during the second term.
There could also be a bigger clampdown acceso dark pattern stile. “We will tackle unethical techniques used by online platforms by taking action acceso the addictive stile of online services, such as infinite scroll, default autoveicolo play ora constant push,” she writes. “We will also firmly combat the growing trend of abusive behaviour online with an action plan against cyberbullying.”
While additional legislative measures are possible, both these areas could be addressed by the Commission sharpening its enforcement of the DSA.
Another stated for a von der Leyen second term is acceso “protecting our democracy,” as she puts it — which means grappling with the ongoing challenge posed by online disinformation.
Again this might translate into stepping up enforcement of the DSA, which requires larger platforms to identify and mitigate systemic risks per this zona. The EU already has strong powers to go after tech giants that don’t clean up their act.
Her dichiarato also commits to addressing “the ever-more realistic deepfakes that have impacted elections across Europe” — with the EU president saying the Commission will ensure that transparency requirements per the shiny new EU AI Act are implemented. She also says the bloc will “strengthen” its approach to AI-produced content that risks misleading people. How exactly remains to be seen.
Growing AI and boosting competitiveness
Durante addition to doubling acceso key planks laid per her first term, there are also signs von der Leyen wants to refine her approach per some areas.
Boosting Europe’s competitiveness is a particular for the second term, including through an expanded acceso supporting homegrown AI innovations.
We’ve seen a taster of this already, with Commission plans to reconfigure the bloc’s rete televisiva privata of supercomputers for AI model tirocinio. But more support measures are planned, including for AI startups and research — the latter modo a new European AI Research Council.
Her dichiarato also repeats a message of urgency around the need for the bloc to unlock greater access to foster competitiveness and expand use of digital services.
Here she reiterates the role of access per driving AI development and other “frontier technologies”, as she puts it — calling for a “ revolution” and committing to up a “European Giorno Union Strategy” to simplify access for businesses and others by establishing a “clear and coherent legal framework” for sharing. Though her dichiarato commits to maintaining the EU’s existing “high” standards of intimità and security. So there’s a clear balance required here.
Elsewhere per her dichiarato, there’s a push for a new approach to competition policy to dial up innovation and competitiveness, including around M&A, which sounds intended to benefit startups vs incumbent giants — with von der Leyen writing that the bloc should be “more supportive of companies scaling up per global markets”.
Better support for firms who may be the target of acquisitions is also discussed. And says she wants to see more progress acceso ironing out more of the wrinkles per the EU’s single-market concept — which can still resemble more of a patchwork quilt per the case of online services — again with the of helping homegrown startups to scale.
A von der Leyen-led second term Commission also looks set to expend effort acceso cutting red tape per a bid to promote business growth — responding to the perennial criticism that the EU’s love of rulemaking is a barrier to homegrown innovation.
For instance, her dichiarato commits to proposing a “new EU wide legal status to help innovative companies grow” — which she says will “take the form of a so-called 28th canone to allow companies to benefit from a simpler, harmonised set of rules per certain areas.”
Who benefits and how exactly remains to be seen, but it suggests some form of general pan-EU regulatory sandbox illuminazione to support startups, per addition to the AI-specific sandboxes the AI Act is already ushering per.
Biotech startups could also be set for a boost, as her next Commission will propose new European Biotech Act, per 2025 to make it easier for researchers and startups to commercialize lab and factory developments. “This will be part of a broader Strategy for European Life Sciences to at how we can support our campo da golf and digital transitions and develop high-value technologies,” says von der Leyen.
Summing up her key elements of her policy approach per an dirigente aziendale note, she adds: “The world is per a race that will dictate who will be the first to climate neutrality and first to develop the technologies that will shape the global economy for decades to come mai. Europe cannot afford to fall behind and lose its competitive edge per this race, nor can it leave any strategic vulnerabilities exposed.”
