AI Continent Plan: Many ambitions, lots of uncertainties

On 9 April 2025, the European Commission launched an AI Continent Action Plan. The plan aims to contribute to making the European Union a global leader in Artificial Intelligence. It entails sustained investment in infrastructure, including computing power and networks, creating a large single market with one single set of safety rules across the EU, including the recently adopted AI Act, ensuring AI is trustworthy and aligned with EU values. The Commission aims to provide a solid foundation in world-class computational power with data spaces accessible to all. Key elements include:

• strengthening the network of AI Factories
• establishing resource-efficient Gigafactories, integrating massive computing power into data centres
• more access to high-quality data for AI innovators
• an Apply AI Strategy with concrete actions to boost new industrial and scientific uses of AI and improve public services (third pillar)
• reinforcing AI skills, including basic AI literacy and diverse talent (fourth pillar)

As a first pillar, the Commission wants to facilitate the building large-scale AI data and computing infrastructures across Europe for the AI ecosystem, deploy and scale AI Factories, Invest in AI Gigafactories, and establish a support framework for boosting EU cloud and data centre capacity. The upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act aims to create the right conditions for the EU to incentivise large investments in cloud and edge capacity. On 9 
April, the Commission also opened up a call for evidence for the Cloud and AI Development Act. A Proposal for a regulation is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The second pillar is making data available for AI with a Data Union Strategy through a communication planned for the third quarter of 2025. Key elements of the strategy include so-called Data Labs and Common European Data Spaces. Beyond making more data available, the Data Union Strategy will also investigate ways to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, the Commission said.

The fifth pillar focuses on fostering regulatory compliance and simplification. As a first step, the Commission is launching the AI Act Service Desk, which will be a central information hub on the AI Act, allowing stakeholders to ask for help and receive tailor-made answers. Second, the Commission will identify further measures that are needed to facilitate a smooth, streamlined and simple application of the AI Act, particularly for smaller companies. The Commission said it will take the results from the stakeholder consultation into account and provide templates, guidance, webinars and training courses to streamline procedures and facilitate compliance.

Many ambitions, lots of uncertainty

• The EU Commission is right to come with the AI Continent Plan now, although the details still need to be worked out. Any measures that reduce and simplify regulations will be very much welcomed by the industry.
• There is a risk that the plan is overly ambitious. Strengthening the network of AI Factories requires many new large-scale datacenters. The spatial planning and permits are in the remit of national of regional public authorities of Member States who may have a different agenda.
• To ensure more access to high-quality data it needs to be clear where the data reside and how they should be made available, and under which conditions. This is governed by the Data Governance Act and the Data Act (not yet in force). It may be even unsure whether Europe has sufficient data to proper train models and systems and who controls them.
• The development of AI algorithms and leveraging their adoption in EU strategic sectors will be dependent on the availability of high-quality data and will also take time.
• Reinforcing AI skills and talent across Europe by further developing excellence in AI education and research is a good approach but will take years to grow to maturity. Can we find the right people?
• Regulatory simplification: regarding the Apply AI Strategy public consultation with specific questions on the AI Act that aim to understand challenges in the implementation process, to identify where regulatory uncertainty creates obstacles to the development and adoption of AI: it all sounds good, but the industry should not have high expectations of the outcome. First, the process will take at least two years. Second, simplification should lead to more efficiency for the industry to launch AI related products and services in the Union market. The AI Continent plan seems to focus mainly on ’a need to facilitate compliance with the AI Act, particularly for smaller innovators’.  That is a good thing but will not help bigger players.  Third, the AI Act is not a principles-based regulation but rather a detailed rulebook. Taking out provisions may create gaps. Simplification can be achieved by relying less on time-consuming third-party conformity assessments of high-risk systems, decreasing transparency and accountability requirements, and focusing instead on general principles for continuous monitoring and mitigation of risks by the industry. This requires a systemic change of the rulebook that the European parliament may not like at all.
• With the AI Act Service Desk, the Commission positions itself as an industry consultant. This can be at odds with the Commissions’ supervisory powers with regard to general-purpose AI models. The AI Act Service Desk will certainly help to explain the rules of the regulation but will not take away the compliance burden for the industry pursuant to the AI Act.
• Although the announcement is under the heading 'Regulatory Simplification,' the Commission does not indicate that the AI Act itself will be simplified or amended. Instead, simplification may be achieved through the guidance provided. Interestingly, the AI Continent Plan refers to ‘the need to facilitate compliance with the AI Act’. As part of the key Commission actions, reference is made to ‘Launch, as part of Apply AI Strategy’s public consultation, a process to identify stakeholders’ regulatory challenges and inform possible further measures to facilitate compliance and possible simplification of the AI Act. Whilst the Commission is not ruling out simplification changes to the AI Act, members of the European Parliament are already opposing this.

For further information, please contact Feyo Sickinghe