Making the EU the global AI leader, boosting private and public investments and a new focus on biotechnology.
Those were some of the promises made by Ursula von der Leyen today during a speech after she was re-elected as the European Commission president for the next five years — as she outlined what startups can expect from her next term in office.
During her last stint in charge, entrepreneurs were met with a flurry of new tech regulations, such as the Digital Services Act and the AI Act. Now, Von der Leyen wants to focus on implementing and enforcing all these new rules and on introducing measures that will help Europe’s startups compete globally.
“It was exciting and gratifying to have president Von der Leyen begin her speech with competitiveness and declare that it will be her highest priority,” says Clark Parsons, CEO at the European Startups Network, a lobby group. “This is a simple recognition of reality that Europe has fallen behind the US and China, not just in economic power, but in terms of its ability to launch globally competitive startups and scaleups… The key to Europe getting back in the race is capital.”
Some of the ideas she mentioned in her speech include:
“An investment commission”
Von der Leyen says that her Commission will become “an investment commission”. She promised the EU will “step up our investment in the next wave of frontier technologies, in particular supercomputing, semiconductors, the Internet of Things, genomics, quantum computing, spacetech and beyond”. She also said the Commission will increase research spending “on strategic priorities, on groundbreaking fundamental research and disruptive innovation, and on scientific excellence” and will expand the activity of the European Innovation Council, the EU’s venture arm.
Focus on AI
Late last year, the EU negotiators agreed on the AI Act, groundbreaking regulation that is meant to ensure that AI solutions used in Europe are safe and trustworthy. Now, the bloc wants to focus its efforts “on becoming a global leader in AI innovation”. Von der Leyen announced that in the first 100 days of her mandate she’ll ensure access to new, tailored supercomputing capacity for AI startups and industry through an “AI Factories” initiative. She will also propose an “Apply AI Strategy” to boost new industrial uses of AI across the EU. She also wants to set up a European AI Research Council where we can pool all of the continent’s resources in the field of AI (as has been done with CERN).
All eyes on biotechnology
As well as leaning into AI, the EU wants to focus on biotechnology. Von der Leyen said the Commission would propose a new European Biotech Act in 2025, which will be part of a broader strategy for European life sciences. The documents will review how the EU can support the developement of technology in the life sciences field.
Boosting private markets
Von der Leyen wants to unlock more private capital to invest in innovation on the continent. “Innovative European companies and startups should not be forced to look at the United States, Asia or other markets to finance their expansion. They should be able to find what they need to grow here in Europe too,” she said. To achieve this, she said the Commission would put forward “risk absorbing measures to make it easier for commercial banks, investors and venture capital firms to finance fast-growing companies”. It will also propose a European Savings and Investments Union, including banking and capital markets — a project designed to help direct private savings into backing innovative projects.
