According to a draft seen by the Financial Times, the European Commission’s new “Apply AI strategy” will promote European-made tools to strengthen security and resilience while giving the bloc’s industry a competitive edge. It wants more AI in hospitals, factories and defence systems, and less dependence on imports from abroad.
The Commission believes it can “strengthen EU AI sovereignty” by developing and deploying its own technology, including policies to “accelerate the adoption of European scalable and replicable generative AI solutions in public administrations,” the draft says.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen is expected to unveil the plan on Tuesday, though last-minute adjustments could still occur.
The draft warns about “external dependencies of the AI stack”, meaning the software, hardware and infrastructure that power AI, which it claims could be “weaponised” by “state and non-state actors.”
Brussels has grown increasingly nervous about such vulnerabilities since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which has reignited fears that Europe’s digital supply chain could become hostage to American politics.
China’s growing dominance in AI has only deepened Europe’s worries about being left behind. While the continent has produced some promising players such as French model maker Mistral and German defence tech outfit Helsing, it still relies heavily on the US and Asia for essential hardware, software and critical minerals.
Public administrations, the draft insists, should “help AI start-ups grow through increased demand for European-made open source AI solutions.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that the bloc wants to “speed up AI adoption across the board” through the Apply AI strategy to ensure that Europe does not miss out on the next wave of technological innovation.
Brussels sees AI as more than a simple productivity booster. It wants to position the technology as a “strategic asset” integrated across the EU’s industrial, security and institutional systems.
To fund the initiative, the Commission will mobilise €1 billion (around €1.09 billion) from existing programmes to encourage AI adoption in key sectors such as healthcare and manufacturing.
The bloc also plans to prioritise the development of European AI for defence, as member states increase military spending in response to Russia’s aggression and concerns about US disengagement from European security.
Brussels intends to “accelerate the development and deployment of European AI-enabled” command and control systems, which are currently supplied mainly by the US through Nato.
The Commission further aims to “support the development of sovereign frontier models” for space and defence technologies, clearly hoping to prevent the next technological arms race from being dictated by someone else.
