Overview
- National leaders Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron joined ministers from 23 EU countries and roughly 900–1,000 participants in Berlin to accelerate European digital sovereignty.
- Eighteen strategic partnerships under the EU AI Champions Initiative worth about €1 billion were announced, including SAP’s collaborations with Mistral AI and cloud provider Bleu.
- Infrastructure commitments featured prominently, highlighted by Schwarz‑Gruppe’s €11 billion data‑centre project in Lübbenau aimed at expanding European compute capacity.
- The European Commission is set to present its 'Digital Omnibus' today to simplify and consolidate EU digital rules, with plans to ease reporting burdens, adjust AI timelines, and examine tougher competition oversight of major U.S. cloud providers.
- Governments flagged the state as an anchor customer for sovereign services and expanded open‑source use in administrations, as France pressed for preferential treatment of European firms and privacy advocates cautioned against diluting protections.