Berlin, 11 February 2026 – On the occasion of the retreat of EU leaders on 12 February 2026, Oliver Süme, Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, states:
“This EU Summit must send a clear signal of unity and political will, especially to the business community. Europe’s competitiveness is under pressure. The productivity gap with other world regions has widened, and non-European players dominate the global market for investments in artificial intelligence.
“If Europe wants to remain technologically and economically competitive, it now needs policies focused on growth and innovation, with a particular emphasis on the consistent and comprehensive digitalisation of business, public administration and society.
“Despite the overall economic recession, the Internet industry has proven to be a stable engine of growth and continues to expand more strongly than overall economy. It creates high-quality jobs, drives innovation in all sectors, and is a key lever for productivity gains in Germany and Europe. Against this backdrop in particular, regulation must not become an obstacle to growth. Europe needs an innovation-friendly environment with fewer bureaucratic hurdles, faster approval processes, and clear, proportionate guidelines that enable entrepreneurial initiative instead of slowing it down.
“The Digital Omnibus offers the opportunity to make existing digital regulatory frameworks more coherent and to significantly reduce the burden on companies. What is needed are uniform, legally certain and practical framework conditions across Europe, particularly for the development and training of AI systems. Duplicate and multiple obligations for documentation and risk assessments must be reduced, and the requirements of the AI Act, data protection law and other digital legislation must be better aligned.
“At the same time, the EU Summit should clearly prioritise the strategic promotion of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, semiconductors, cloud infrastructures and data centres. These areas must be strengthened as a coherent innovation ecosystem and designed in such a way that SMEs, start-ups and the Internet industry also have easy access to computing power, data and capital.
“European economic strength does not arise through isolation and regulation, but through high-performance, interoperable infrastructures and investment-friendly conditions. The EU Summit must therefore make it clear that Europe is committed to coherence, technological strength and collective capacity to act.”
