Key policies for digitalization during the Spanish Presidency: The AI Act and the Data Act

It is crucial to the survival and promotion of the European tech industry to reach an ambitious and balanced compromise with the AI Act, and to deploy a productive and clear use for businesses in the future implementation of the Data Act. These two new legislative frameworks illustrate how the new stage of digitalisation is transversal and multilevel. A merely sectorial development and use of digital technologies by public and private organisations has been overcome thanks to the emergence of AI, distributed cloud infrastructure, 5G (and in the future 6G), blockchain trust architectures or digital systems for energy management.

To advance these two regulations, it is necessary to listen to the concerns of industry and allow an open dialogue with policymakers in order to hear each other’s concerns. In order for Europe not to fall behind, we have to encourage innovation and, most importantly, uncover the hidden potential of creating a data economy. In essence, how do we as Europeans get the balance right in order to support our businesses and allow them to scale up easily and competitively?