Policy & Law
14.04.2025

The View from Brussels # 15-2025

News, Publications and Consultations from the Past Week

Notifications week 15 (07.04.2025-13.04.2025)

AI: The Commission has initiated two consultations on the European Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Science. The strategy envisages the formation of a European Research Council for AI, which will pool resources for scientists and drive forward the further development of AI. In this context, the updated version of the “Living Guidelines on the responsible use of Generative AI in research” was also published.

Digital tax: Both the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the Center for European Policy (CEP) have published studies on a possible digital tax. The CEPS takes the approach of taxing the revenue that tech companies (regardless of where they are based) generate with their digital services within the EU. The CEP, on the other hand, is relying not only on a digital tax on the revenue generated from user data, but also on digital tariffs for the cross-border sale of software/licenses and infrastructure levies for services based on the use of digital infrastructures.

Start-ups: The Lisbon Council think tank has presented a report containing recommendations for Europe’s start-up sector

AI: The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI has released the Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025.

Cybersecurity: The Commission has launched a consultation on the Action Plan for the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers.

Quantum technology: The Centre for European Politics (CEP) think tank calls for strategic diversification and a focus on economically promising applications.

AI: The Commission has presented the AI Continent Action Plan. The aim of this initiative is to become a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence by addressing key issues such as infrastructure, access to data, business adoption, skills development, and regulatory simplification. Planned measures include a network of AI factories, the tendering of gigafactories, InvestAI, the Cloud and AI Development Act, a Data Union Strategy, an Apply AI Strategy, an AI Skills Academy, and the AI Act Service Desk.

Digital Services Act: The new established “Out-of-court Dispute Settlement Bodies’ Network” had its first meeting at a conference in Malta. The objective is to create a diverse ecosystem of dispute resolution bodies by sharing knowledge and data, discussing best practices and establishing efficient cooperation channels with online platforms. At the dispute resolution bodies, users may challenge content moderation decisions made by online platforms out of court.

Submarine cables: Telecommunications network operators and submarine cable companies call for better protection of submarine cables as part of critical infrastructure in an open letter to the EU, the UK and NATO.

AI: In its “Energy and AI” report, the International Energy Agency assumes that renewable energies and natural gas power plants will be the most important suppliers of electricity for AI computing power by 2030 due to lower costs.

Cybersecurity: The Commission has launched a consultation on the revision of the Cybersecurity Act.

Selected Publications from the EP Think Tank

Ongoing Relevant European Commission Consultations

The preview of the current week 16 (14.-20.04.2025) and the coming week 17 (21.-27.04.2025)

Council:

The current preview of the Council’s work for the upcoming days until 27.04.2025 can be found here.

Summit and Ministerial Meetings:

There will be no council meetings next week.

Preparatory Bodies:

  • Financial Services Committee (FSC), 04.2025, Agenda
  • Ad Hoc WP on prep. Council concl. on enhanc. prepared, resp. capability & resilience future crisis, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on Public Health, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Wp On Civil Protection (Prociv) (Critical Entities Resilience (Cer)), 04.2025
  • WP on Hybrid Threats, 04.2025
  • Working Party on Information Exchange and Data Protection (DAPIX), 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on General Affairs, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Trade Policy Committee (TPC) (Experts – Services and Investment), 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society, 04.2025, Agenda
  • COREPER I, 04.2025, Agenda
  • COREPER II, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on Frontiers, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Audiovisual Working Party, 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on Civil Law Matters (JUSTCIV), 04.2025, Agenda
  • Law Enforcement Working Party (Police), 04.2025, Agenda
  • Working Party on e-Justice, 04.2025
  • Working Party on Technical Harmonisation, 04.2025
  • Working Party on Technical Harmonisation, 04.2025
  • Working Party on Transport – Intermodal Questions and Networks, 04.2025

An overview of the various Council meeting dates can be found here.

Commission:

The agenda for the current Commission meeting was not available at the time of going to press. You may be able to find it on the Commission’s website at short notice.

Parliament:

Plenary Sittings

There are no plenary sittings of the European Parliament taking place this week.

Here you can find a list of the upcoming dates for the European Parliament. The dates for the coming week were not available at the time of going to press. You may be able to find them on the Parliament’s website at short notice.

The meeting calendar for 2025 is available here.

Committees

LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)

No meeting of the LIBE Committee has been scheduled for this week.

The agenda for the current meeting of the LIBE Committee taking place on 23.04.2025 was not available at the time of going to press. You may be able to find it shortly on the committee website under Documents.

The current timetables of the LIBE Committee can be found here.

JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)

No meeting of the JURI Committee has been scheduled for this week.

The agenda for the meeting of the JURI Committee on 23-24.04.2025 can be found here

The current timetables of the JURI Committee can be found here.

ITRE Committee (Industry, Research and Energy)

No meeting of the ITRE Committee has been scheduled for this week.

The agenda for the joint committee procedure of the ITRE Committee and the Committee on Security and Defense on 24.04.2025 can be found here

The agenda for the meeting of the ITRE Committee on 24.04.2025 can be found here

The current timetables (as of 10.04.2025) of the ITRE Committee can be found here.

IMCO Committee (Single Market)

No meeting of the IMCO Committee is scheduled for this week.

The current timetables of the IMCO Committee (as of 18.03.2025) can be found here.

CULT Committee (Culture and Education)

No meeting of the CULT Committee is scheduled for this week.

The current schedules of the CULT Committee can be found here.

Outlook:

An overview of the following session weeks can be found here. The provisional agenda for the upcoming plenary sittings can be found here.

European Court of Justice

You can find the court calendar of the CFI(H) here.

The View from Brussels 11 June 2018

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