European Commission Launches AI Continent Action Plan
Summary
On April 9, 2025, the European Commission (“Commission”) launched the AI Continent Action Plan which aims to bring innovation to Europe’s traditional industries and help the EU become a global leader of AI. The Action Plan is based on five key pillars:
- Building a large-scale AI data and computing infrastructure
- Increasing access to large and high-quality data
- Developing algorithms and fostering AI adoption in strategic EU sectors
- Strengthening AI skills and talents
- Regulatory simplification
Key initiatives under the Action Plan include working towards the creation of an internal market for data through data labs, as well as launching the AI Act Service Desk to help businesses comply with the AI Act.
Calls for Evidence
Along with the Action Plan, the Commission launched two public consultations in relation to (i) a Cloud and AI Development Act, and (ii) the Apply AI Strategy.
Cloud and AI Development Act
The proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (the “Act”) is an initiative aimed at boosting the EU’s cloud and AI infrastructure capacity, with the aim to at least triple the EU’s data centre capacity within the next 5 to 7 years. The need for this increased capacity has been driven by increasing volume of data and the demand for computing resources, as well as more compute-intensive AI services. The EU currently lags behind the US and China in terms of available data centre capacity and so this initiative aims to close this capacity gap. The Act will also provide guidance on the use of cloud services in the public sector.
The Commission is seeking feedback from a range of stakeholders including cloud and edge service providers, AI developers and providers, financial institutions and investors. The deadline for responding to the consultation is July 3, 2025.
Apply AI Strategy
The Apply AI Strategy is part of President von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines to make Europe a global leader in AI innovation. It aims to enable European companies to be at the forefront of AI, increase the quality of services in the public sector and foster the integration of AI technologies into key sectors. The EU is focused on enhancing its competitiveness, and AI is key to achieving this goal. The main objectives of the initiative are:
- fostering the integration of AI technologies in the EU’s leading strategic industrial sectors;
- unlocking the potential of innovation and enabling EU companies to be global AI front runners; and
- fostering the integration of AI solutions in the public sector to substantially improve the quality of services provided to the public.
The consultation on the Apply AI Strategy will help the EU to identify stakeholder priorities, current challenges to the uptake of AI in specific sectors as well as potential solutions and policy approaches. The consultation also invites participants to respond to specific questions on the challenges presented by the AI Act implementation process and adoption of AI and ascertain how the Commission and Member States can better support stakeholders in the implementation of the legislation. The deadline for providing feedback to this consultation is June 4, 2025.
