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The AI Coordination Plan is a European strategic initiative aimed at accelerating AI investments, ensuring the effective implementation of AI strategies and plans, and unifying AI policies.
This plan underscores Europe's commitment to becoming a global leader in trustworthy AI. The latest update, released in 2021, aligns with the European Commission's digital and green priorities and addresses responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initiated in 2018, the plan involves collaboration among the European Commission, EU member states, Norway, and Switzerland.
Its primary goal is to unlock Europe’s global AI potential. The preliminary plan outlines specific actions and funding mechanisms to promote AI adoption and development across various sectors while encouraging member states to formulate their own AI strategies.
The EU's AI strategy is built on four pillars, each focusing on specific policy objectives and actions to harness AI's potential while ensuring trust, sustainability, and leadership across various fields:
Setting Supportive Conditions for AI Development and Adoption: Efficient governance, high-quality data, and computational capacity are required to support AI development.
Establishing Strategic Leadership in High-Impact Areas: Emphasizing the role of AI in sectors such as environment, health, robotics, public services, internal affairs, transportation, and agriculture, while addressing critical challenges.
Nurturing Talent and Enhancing Skills: Developing a skilled workforce through digital and AI education, internships, centers of excellence, and skills development.
Ensuring AI Technology Serves People: Promoting trust, ethical AI development, and international cooperation to shape AI policies.
On February 2, 2024, 75 representatives from EU member states officially approved the final text of the EU AI Act, which is awaiting final legislative approval in the coming months.
Key Points of the Act
The act introduces new rules for "foundation models" of AI, imposing specific obligations on providers. These rules differ from those applicable to specialized AI systems.
AI systems will generally be regulated based on risk, with strict obligations imposed on systems deemed to have "high-risk" applications or use cases.
Certain applications or use cases of AI systems will be banned due to "unacceptable risks," with limited exceptions.
The act will have profound implications beyond the EU, applicable to providers, deployers, importers, and distributors. Significant fines will be imposed for non-compliance.
Additionally, the EU AI Act establishes several new EU regulatory bodies with specific enforcement functions:
AI Office: Responsible for overseeing terms related to GPAI models, including advanced models. This office is composed of European Commission officials and maintains close contact with the scientific community and a scientific expert group (described below) to support its work.
AI Committee: This committee provides advice on the implementation of the act, facilitates coordination among national regulatory bodies, and issues recommendations and opinions similar to those of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Its membership is similar to that of the EDPB, including representatives from national regulatory bodies and the European Commission.
Scientific Expert Group: Composed of AI experts, this group provides advice and support to the AI Office, especially in assessing systemic risks associated with GPAI models.
Consultative Forum: This forum is made up of various stakeholders, including industry, startups, SMEs, civil society, and academia. Similar to the Scientific Expert Group, it provides advice and technical expertise to the AI Committee and the European Commission.
The EU's AI strategy aims to create a favorable AI ecosystem for society, promote innovation, and establish Europe as a global leader in AI while adhering to ethical and responsible AI practices. The coordinated AI plan is intended to serve as a blueprint for Europe’s path to global AI leadership, fostering trustworthy AI technologies, economic growth, innovation, and social welfare.
Key Participants
The EU ranks third in private AI investment, following the US and China, although it still lags behind them in absolute numbers. According to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) AI Observatory report, in 2020, the private sector accounted for 67% of total AI investment in the EU, with most investments concentrated in data, devices, and R&D.
Despite the rising number of AI startups in the EU, in 2021, they accounted for only about 7% of the annual equity investments in AI and blockchain technologies globally, while the US and China together held over 80% of the share.
This low proportion may be related to Europe’s venture capital ecosystem, which primarily provides early financing for small AI-based companies but performs poorly in subsequent expansion and growth stages. The upcoming EU AI Act has faced criticism for being overly restrictive, potentially stifling innovation and competitiveness, especially in generative AI (GenAI), and is thus viewed as a threat by the private sector.
The European Commission has been very proactive in the development of AI technologies. From 2018 to 2020, the Horizon 2020 program allocated €1.5 billion for AI; the Digital Europe Program (DEP), as part of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), has allocated an additional €2.5 billion to supplement these funds.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a €150 million co-investment facility, investing alongside fund managers and private investors, supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF). In comparison, in 2020, the EIF initiated a €100 million investment plan specifically for AI and blockchain.
In addition to these specialized funds, the European Commission has provided additional resources under the new multiannual financial framework and the post-pandemic NextGenerationEU plan, particularly focusing on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which will be deployed with a strategic technology emphasis. Unlike the private sector, these investments focus on human capital and skills development, followed by R&D.
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