Dr. Christoph Strnadl

The EU AI Act with its pioneering risk-based approach, sets a precedent for regulating AI by categorising applications based on their potential risks to individuals and society. By establishing clear guidelines for high-risk AI systems whilst imposing outright bans on some risks like social scoring, the Act seeks to balance ethics with AI development. However, stringent regulations risk presents some trade-offs, like having high compliance burdens for SMEs and startups, which can stifle innovation, pushing talent and investment to more business-friendly AI regions, and limiting Europe’s AI leadership.

1. Navigating the EU AI Act: How can regulators ensure the EU remains an AI leader while implementing risk-tiered regulations that prevent harm without stifling technological progress?
2. Competitiveness vs Overregulation: With global AI competition intensifying, what policy strategies can ensure that AI startups and enterprises thrive without unnecessary compliance burdens?
3. Ethical AI as a competitive advantage: Can responsible AI practices become a strategic differentiator for European companies, positioning them as global leaders in trustworthy, human-centric AI deployment?

European policymakers are actively seeking to reduce reliance on overseas technology giants while fostering homegrown tech innovation, with initiatives such as the EU Chips Act, the EU AI Act, Gaia-X and the EuroStack. Does Europe’s push for digital independence enable a more competitive technology ecosystem or does it risk creating new regulatory and technological barriers that stifle cross-border technology collaboration? What are these trade-offs, and what are the opportunities for digital decoupling to enable other policy goals, such as nurturing local innovation ecosystems and build sovereign, trustworthy payment systems? This roundtable will explore the trade-offs and opportunities offered by the digital sovereignty movement, and spotlight the case of digital payments as an example where these questions are playing out.

This roundtable gathers researchers, technologists, policymakers, as well as AI and digital payments experts, to identify the steps Europe can take to invest in the capabilities, skills, and partnerships needed to drive digital sovereignty efforts; explore how European privacy standards are influencing the development of sovereign digital payments infrastructure in Europe; learn from alternative models emerging from the Global South; and map out a European path towards technological autonomy.

This roundtable seeks to:

• Identify the steps Europe can take to mobilise and invest in the capabilities, skills, and partnerships needed to drive digital sovereignty efforts
• Explore the trade-offs of Europe’s digital decoupling strategy and its impact on technology research, enterprise adoption, and cross-border innovation, and identify opportunities for digital decoupling to achieve these policy goals
• Learn from open-source alternatives emerging from Europe and the Global South that offer pathways of technological autonomy
• Map out a third way to achieving a European Innovation paradigm built on European privacy standards as an alternative model to the Big-Tech-driven US approach and China’s state-led ecosystem