ASML, Airbus and Mistral lead CEO call for simpler EU AI rules

TL;DR:

  • The chief executives of seven of Europe’s largest technology firms — ASML, Airbus, Ericsson, Mistral AI, Nokia, SAP and Siemens — have called for EU AI regulation to be reduced and simplified, in an op-ed published in Handelsblatt and Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.
  • The intervention lands as EU talks resume this month on streamlining the bloc’s 2024 AI Act, with the European Commission also due to present its “Tech Sovereignty Package” on 27 May covering chip industry support and AI infrastructure.
  • Resultsense view: this is the most coordinated European industrial pushback on the AI Act since it was passed. UK readers should note the political opportunity: the more the EU is seen to be tightening or loosening rules, the sharper the contrast for the UK’s separate trajectory under DSIT and AISI.

ASML chief executive Christophe Fouquet leads the signatories. The op-ed followed a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and was published in newspapers including Germany’s Handelsblatt and Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

What the CEOs are arguing

“More than three years after the ‘ChatGPT moment’, Europe is still debating regulation, while others have long shifted focus to scaling AI in physical systems and robotics,” the executives wrote. The piece called for stronger industrial policy, M&A rules that allow European companies to grow, and protection from “subsidised rivals with very strong market penetration in the EU”.

The framing positions the AI Act not as a bad regulation in principle but as a competitive disadvantage in a world where the US has shed federal pre-release review (briefly, before this month’s Caisi return) and China runs a parallel state-backed model. The “fragmented markets” complaint also targets EU single-market friction beyond AI specifically.

What the EU is actually considering

The Commission is reopening parts of the AI Act for streamlining this month. The 27 May Tech Sovereignty Package is expected to bundle chip-industry support, AI infrastructure investment and possibly state-aid relief for European AI capacity. Compromise positions floated in Brussels include simplifying the high-risk classification process, reducing duplicate documentation requirements between the AI Act and the GDPR, and providing safe harbours for foundation-model training.

The UK position by contrast

The UK has not implemented an EU-AI-Act equivalent, instead pursuing the lighter principles-based framework articulated in the 2023 AI white paper, the 2024 election-period AI Bill commitments, and the live evaluation programme run by AISI. The CEO op-ed implicitly highlights the regulatory differential: companies operating across the channel face two divergent regimes, with UK obligations narrower in scope.

For UK firms operating in the EU — UK fintechs, UK creative-industries businesses with EU customers, UK manufacturing AI suppliers — the streamlining process is the practical thing to track. Even modest simplification of high-risk-system documentation reduces compliance cost on the EU side, narrowing the operational advantage of UK-only operation.

UK relevance

Three implications. First, UK firms that delayed EU market entry on AI Act compliance grounds should re-evaluate following the streamlining outcome. Second, sovereignty Package state aid for European AI infrastructure will widen the gap between EU-resident and UK-resident enterprise compute economics — UK CIOs should factor in the relative pricing trajectory. Third, the “Europe is still debating” framing is exactly the political opening DSIT will exploit to position the UK as the lighter-touch alternative — expect UK government to lean into this in conferences and public messaging through the back half of 2026.

Looking forward

The 27 May Tech Sovereignty Package is the next concrete signal. If it delivers visible AI Act simplification plus material state aid for European compute, the regulatory differential UK firms have been pricing in narrows. If it disappoints — getting bogged down in Council horse-trading — UK regulatory positioning becomes more valuable to firms making location decisions for AI businesses through 2027.

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