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EU Commissioner Virkkunen urges US to respect EU digital rules
In a wide-ranging interview with Euronews, Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commissioner for Tech Sovereignty, speaks about the possibilities and pitfalls of AI, the investigation into X’s Grok chatbot and a possible social media ban for kids.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/01/27/eu-commissioner-virkkunen-urges-us-to-respect-eu-digital-rules
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
In a wide-ranging interview with Euronews, Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commissioner for Tech Sovereignty, speaks about the possibilities and pitfalls of AI, the investigation into X’s Grok chatbot and a possible social media ban for kids.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/01/27/eu-commissioner-virkkunen-urges-us-to-respect-eu-digital-rules
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Europe Conversation. I'm Stefan Grobe. My guest today is Henna
00:13Wirkunen, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission in charge of tech sovereignty,
00:19security and democracy. Welcome to the program. Thank you very much. So with a portfolio like
00:26this, we can basically talk about anything. And I want to start with the topic of artificial
00:31intelligence, which is increasingly shaping our lives as a society. Now, the European public,
00:39like in the US, by the way, is still very skeptical and a bit frightened. And that might be an
00:46understatement. Can you reassure people? When it comes to AI? Yeah, I think AI is something,
00:54like you said, that when we speak about security, technology, democracy, that we can speak
00:59whatever topic under this. And AI is something that is very much, you know, connected all of
01:05these topics also to our security, but also to our democracies. And of course, now it's
01:11one of the most fastest developing technology. And in the European level, according to polls,
01:18we have made, for example, for the workers. So in the job market, also in the workplaces,
01:26most of the people in last year, they had anyway positive attitude towards AI, even that you were
01:31skeptical that how people see AI. So more than 60% of the people, they saw that AI has been helping
01:38them in their job. But of course, now there is a lot of expectations, of course, towards AI,
01:43that how fast it will develop, how it will change the things. But it's often happening with the new
01:48technologies that we have very high expectations that in the few years time, everything will be
01:52totally changed. People are skeptical because they don't know what to expect, feeling a little,
01:57a little insecure. Yeah. And there's, of course, the discussing about this AI bubble all the time,
02:01that is there too many, too much expectations, that is really changing so much. But I think in the
02:07longer term, AI will change a lot. But of course, in the shorter time, maybe not so much. Okay. So
02:12according to a recent study by a consultancy firm, Alex Partners, 95% of CEOs said they expected to
02:20conduct layoffs in the next five years because of AI. Do you think this is realistic? We have very
02:28different, of course, also evaluations on this, that what it really means now for the jobs market,
02:34that does it mean that AI will replace a lot of jobs. It's always happening with the new technologies
02:40that some jobs are lost, but then new jobs are also created. But what is for sure it is that we
02:46have to really train our workforce and our citizens for AI. So it's very important to invest to digital
02:53skills and also to ICT expertise and also to AI skills. But 95% is, that's quite a number.
03:01There is a lot of expectations also, of course, that AI can replace many of the very like manual
03:08jobs, but certainly there will be many jobs that AI can't replace the human beings. And of course,
03:14human beings are then needed to new kind of tasks.
03:18So globally, there are two AI superpowers, the United States and China. Europe is behind.
03:27How can we close this innovation gap? We have identified, of course,
03:34what are the obstacles in the European markets. And I think the good news is that we have everything
03:39what is needed to be competitive in AI. So we have the biggest amount of ICT and especially AI
03:48experts and engineers per capita in the European Union. We have great research and science in this field.
03:54We have also more than 7000 startups who are developing and training AI in the European Union.
04:00But one clear obstacle is that they don't have access to computing capacity.
04:04And that's why we have been investing together with our member states to 19 AI factories,
04:09really to invest to supercomputers and give the access to our startups and to researchers to train AI.
04:15And now we will take also one more ambitious steps on this field when we will launch in the coming
04:22weeks the AI gigafactories initiative. So we are building also four to five very massive supercomputers.
04:28So computing capacity has been one of the obstacles. And then it's also very important now to facilitate
04:34that we have also high quality data sets for AI developers. We are also working on that.
04:39And of course, we also published recently our apply AI strategy because we see that Europe can be very
04:45successful when we are combining our traditional industries and our public sector with AI. So these
04:52kinds of user cases, we can be very successful there. I know you're a marathon runner and
04:58I know you're a marathon runner. And those guys take the long view, right? So when do you think will
05:07Europe be able to really compete with with the Americans and the Chinese? I think it's important
05:13that we are building to our own strengths also when it comes to competitiveness and technologies. And
05:20Europe has been always very open for global investors and global technologies as well.
05:27And that's why we don't have so much own capacity in all critical fields when it comes to technologies.
05:33And we have clearly identified that AI is one critical technology where we have to build up our own
05:39capacity together with AI, also with semiconductors, cybersecurity technologies. These are very critical technologies.
05:46Yeah. You've said once that on this topic of new technologies, Europe must lead, not follow.
05:53Can Europe do that alone? And who are our partners and allies?
05:59That is very important when we speak about technological sovereignty that we don't mean that we are
06:07planning to do everything by our own somehow in isolation. It's not even realistic. And we see also
06:13that nobody can't be competitive alone. So for Europe, it's very important that we are building up our own
06:19capacity in these critical fields, but also that we have like-minded partners. And we have digital
06:25partnerships with several countries and AI is one of the key topics also in these partnerships. Of course,
06:31USA has been always our most important partner when it comes to security and technology economy. But also,
06:38we have digital partnership with South Korea, also with Japan, also with Canada, with India. We have also
06:46technology council with them. And of course, we are now working more and more again with UK after Brexit and
06:53also with Brazil. For example, we just also concluded our Mercosur deal with Brazil and its neighboring countries.
07:01It's interesting that you mentioned the United States as the first ally, because this is our partner with which we have
07:08sometimes locked horns when it comes to technology. What is the right strategy to push back against the
07:17Trump administration here and send a message to Washington and to the European people that Europe
07:23will not negotiate its values? When it comes to digital rules, I think you especially
07:29thought about this part of our partnership, when we speak about democracies like European Union and USA,
07:38I think democratic countries and friends, we can handle that kind of differences in our rules
07:47with respect. And we can understand that we have different rules in some areas. And when it comes to our digital
07:53rules, Europeans are very committed to our rules because we want to make sure that we have
07:57a fair and safe democratic environment also when it comes to digital environment. So we want to make sure
08:05that everything that is illegal in our societies, it's also illegal online and it's a very clear line
08:10in the European Union. And USA tech companies, they understand very well, of course, that they have to
08:18they have to follow our rules when they are doing business in Europe and operating here. We have to remember
08:23that for the European big tech, for the USA big tech, Europe is the biggest external market. And for
08:30some of them, Europe is the biggest market in the world. For example, Instagram is having 100 million
08:36users more in Europe than in USA. When you talk to US officials, do they understand the European point of
08:43view? Do they understand the reasoning behind European legislation? I think often in the European side,
08:52there has been a misunderstanding that we are focusing only to USA companies with our rules.
08:59And of course, we know that this is not the case. So it's always very important, of course, to explain
09:03that we have the same rules for everybody. So for European companies, for Asian companies, from USA
09:09companies, this is very fair. Everybody has the same rules while operating and doing business in Europe.
09:14So we are not somehow targeting to USA companies. Now, the most prominent case, obviously, is EU versus
09:22Elon Musk's chat box, ex-chat box, GROC. On Monday, the European Commission announced the launch of an
09:31investigation into the company after the outcry at the platform's failure to prevent the creation of
09:40sexually explicit images of women, real people, women and children. Walk us through the process.
09:50What happens next? And where are we going?
09:54We have already had investigation open against X and especially focusing to X recommender system.
10:04And now we were extending this investigation with the new decision, because also X has informed that
10:12they are now integrating more and more GROC to their recommender system. So the AI is running very much
10:18the recommender system of X. And of course, it has impacts. So we will investigate now further
10:25recommender system of X. And also we opened investigations, especially about this, that how
10:31X is now and has been really assessing and mitigating the systematic risks, what GROC is posing
10:39to this online service. So this is an obligation under our Digital Service Act, that always
10:43the online platforms that they have to assess and mitigate all the time the risks, what they are
10:49posing. For example, the people's wellbeing for our democratic civic discourses, for the electoral
10:55processes. So this is a really obligation under DSA. So we opened now the investigation. We are collecting now
11:02evidence from the X and GROC site. Already before Christmas, we made the decision that X has to now
11:09retain all the documents, what they have connected to GROC and X. And it's possible that we are having
11:18like interviews and we are collecting material and evidence and really looking how X has been taking
11:24its obligations under DSA. And normally when we are carrying investigations, I have to maybe also
11:31remind that we have investigations going on against 10 online platforms currently. So normally when we are
11:39gathering evidence, we are coming to our preliminary findings and this is the step when the online
11:46platform that they have to comply with our rules and if they are not, then the next step is really
11:51non-compliant decision or then we are accepting their commitments to change the behaviour and design of the
11:57platform. Would you say that the European Union and the United States have a rocky relationship when it comes to
12:04new technologies? We have some different views, especially we know that the discussion of freedom
12:13of speech has been like dominating very much our digital rules and I think it's also very important to
12:19always underline that we are fully respecting freedom of speech and expression in our digital services act.
12:26But in the European Union also when we speak about freedom of speech there is also limits because the
12:33other people they have also their own fundamental rights. So some peoples like freedom of speech can't go
12:41over all the other people's rights also. So we have also balance here. But we have also many of the common
12:50fields of interest when it comes to digital rules as well. For example, protection of minors. Protection of
12:55minors is something that in USA there is also a lot of discussion about it and I would say that all over
13:02the world and also in the European Union because we see that really the online platforms many of them
13:09they have really changed to be more and more addictive. So especially the young people they are using a
13:15lot of time online and also the content what is not shown for them it's not fitting for their age often.
13:22Also under DSA we have clear application for the online platforms that when minors are using these
13:28services very high level of privacy security and safety have to be insured for the minors and this
13:34is exactly a point where we are now investigating online platforms. But this is something that we have also
13:40very much common interest with USA when it comes to online platforms and then everything what is related for
13:46for example to innovations in the fields of AI, 5G, 6G, cyber security also. So we have many topics also
13:55where we are working very closely with USA. Okay let's bring in China if I may. Europe faces significant
14:04reliance on Chinese technology especially in green energy rare earths solar to name batteries to name a few
14:14and digital sectors. Now these are strategic vulnerabilities in supply chains for critical materials
14:22that could risk economic disruption and security raise concerns. How much time will it take to get rid of
14:32these vulnerabilities? This is not happening overnight as we know. Europe has been very open for global
14:41investors and also global businesses and our industry has also built a very long global value chains and
14:49supply chains and I think the first wake-up call was really during the COVID pandemic because then we really
14:56realized that how dependent we were in some critical sector of dirt countries when there was many like
15:03travel restrictions post and so on and suddenly we didn't get the components and raw materials what we
15:10needed. I think it was the first wake-up call really for that and after that when Russia started also full-scale war
15:16against Ukraine we saw also how dependent you some European countries were on Russian energy and it took some years really
15:24to change the path but now we are really looking that where we have the critical dependencies
15:31and how to make sure that we can also replace it with our own production but also that we can have
15:38partners all over the world that we are never dependent on on one country or one source when it comes to some
15:44very critical fields of technologies and of course semiconductors we know that it's very vulnerable the
15:51supply chain there because the supply chains they are very global and they are very optimized so often one chip
15:56can travel thousands of kilometers before it's finalized so if something is happening some kind of incident in
16:03one part of the supply chain it it's causing damages all over the world
16:08Will Europe ever be able to get on an evil level with China?
16:12Again I would say that we have to build to our own strengths when we look our competitiveness and
16:21technological sovereignty and it means that we have to build our own capacity but also we need
16:27partners globally and when it comes to technological sovereignty it means that we have freedom always to
16:36choose with who and how we are operating that we are not dependent on one country one company we are
16:43not forced to one solution that we have always alternatives all right different topic are you
16:51in favor of social media bans for kids as planned by Emmanuel Macron in France I think that internet is
17:01nowadays very important part of our everyday life and society and it's also it's very important to build
17:08up our digital skills but then in which aid you can enter the social media now the minimum level in
17:17the european level is very much 13 years it comes to our gdpr and we are currently now investigating
17:23online platforms that how they are checking the age of the user because we know that some very small
17:29kids they have already their own social media accounts and now the member states are discussing
17:36that what is the right age really for that but we are focusing in our investigations now that that
17:41online platforms are really taking the responsibility that high level of safety security and privacy is
17:48insured for our minors because it's obligation our dsa and in the same time we are also now investigating
17:54that how the online platforms are really checking the age of the user and we have certain high risk
18:02services also and there we have to be very strict that they are really checking the age when we speak
18:07about gambling when we speak about adult platforms or selling alcohol or cigarettes so these are very high
18:15risk services and there we have to be sure that the platforms are really verifying the age of the user
18:22but uh under that when it's not so high risk services we have to really look at what kind of
18:27technologies are used and how we will set also the minimum age there because of course it means that if
18:35we have very strict rules here uh then everybody should verify their age and in the same time we shouldn't
18:42have the situation that you have to give your personal data for online platform so we are also working
18:48now with the age verification tool that you can also verify your age without giving your own personal
18:53data commissioner we're living in challenging uncertain times and our conversation sort of reflected that
19:01now as we are still at the beginning of the year um 2026 give me one reason why we should all be optimistic
19:10i think we should be very optimistic because uh uh we have said from the european union side now
19:18many times that this is really the independence moment of european union so that we have to really
19:24build up our own capacity and competitiveness when it comes to defense security also technologies economy
19:31and we have everything what is needed to be strong in all these fields so when we are acting now together
19:39with speed we can be very strong and competitive in the coming years all right henna virkunen eu
19:46commissioner for technological sovereignty security and democracy thanks so much for coming on the
19:51the show great conversation thank you
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