Overview
- About 900 participants, including EU digital ministers, are meeting in Berlin, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron scheduled to attend.
- Organizers aim to expand European cloud storage, data centers and AI models so services run under EU transparency and privacy standards, with showcases such as open‑source office tools for authorities and progress on an EU digital wallet.
- German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger urges rapid reforms and investment, warning that the global race in artificial intelligence is accelerating.
- Industry groups call for more capital and less red tape to help European firms scale, as a Bitkom study finds roughly 80% of executives view reliance on U.S. cloud providers critically.
- U.S. laws that allow access to data held by U.S. firms abroad heighten concerns about sovereignty, highlighted by the Bundespolizei storing bodycam footage on AWS, even as Berlin says the initiative is not directed against the United States.