Europe pushes AI self-sufficiency amid absence from global safety debate

ECB president Christine Lagarde and EU officials including Ursula von der Leyen and Margrethe Vestager are urging Europe to build its own AI infrastructure and datacentres, warning the bloc risks dependency on US or Chinese technology while lacking a voice in the highest levels of the global AI safety debate. Vestager's new report calls for technological self-sufficiency and a supranational body beyond US-China rivalry to address existential AI risks, alongside the EU AI Act's existing rules on high-risk systems. The push shows rapid AI development prompting calls for centralised European capacity and new global governance structures.