With the official start of summertime this weekend, Europe awaits the upcoming parliamentary recess. So far, the year 2025 has revealed various challenges the European Union faces right now: The announcement by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in America’s AI infrastructure underscores the global race for dominance in the field of artificial intelligence. Following this wake-up call, the EU Commission is reinforcing AI regulations and the establishment of new AI infrastructure.
Data protection is central to the development of future-proof AI technologies. Therefore, the Association of the Internet Industry advocates for a binding, Europe-wide uniform interpretation of the GDPR, as you can read here.
In the view of the industry association, artificial intelligence and data centres must be considered together. Dr. BĂ©la Waldhauser, Spokesperson of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructure in Germany, which was founded under the umbrella of eco, warns of bureaucratic hurdles. More on this topic can be found here.
Furthermore, eco criticises the proposal by Germany’s Minister of State Wolfram Weimer to introduce a digital tax. “Such a tax would place significant burdens on companies with regard to documentation and user tracking to ensure accurate reporting of advertising revenues generated in Germany,” said Oliver Süme, Chair of the Board of eco, in a recent statement.
In addition, eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe addresses Europe’s digital sovereignty in his contribution to the Digital Sovereignty Forum by Table.Media. Further topics of this issue are the BKA Situation Report and the Investment Emergency Programme.
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