🤖 EU AI & Sovereignty

17 September 2026

MEPs put AI at the heart of the State of the Union debate, the Parliament demands a tougher EU stance on hybrid threats and foreign interference, Washington still refuses to regulate AI, and AI labs scramble to prove self-regulation works.

European Parliament debates the state of the EU: economy, security, climate, AI, social media

MEPs put AI explicitly on the agenda of the State of the Union debate alongside economy, security, climate and social media. It is the political highlight of the autumn session and sets the Parliament’s leverage over the Commission on digital and AI policy — the key Brussels event of the week for AI sovereignty.

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European Parliament demands a tougher EU approach to hybrid threats

In a new report MEPs warn of increased hybrid attacks on the EU, with Russia and its proxies (notably Belarus) as prime suspects; China, Iran and North Korea also run hybrid campaigns. The Parliament wants more intelligence-sharing between member states and better EU coordination to detect early attacks that combine intelligence warfare, cognitive warfare, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure. NATO cooperation must strengthen European readiness.

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Parliament proposals to protect democracy from foreign interference

The European Parliament puts concrete proposals on the table to strengthen democratic resilience against foreign interference — a core element of European digital sovereignty. It directly touches disinformation, platform regulation and election protection, topics tightly interwoven with AI-driven influence campaigns.

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State of the Union 2026: quotes and initiatives from the Commission

The European Commission publishes the main quotes and initiatives from the State of the Union 2026. The document bundles the policy agenda for the coming year, including the digital and technological priorities that steer EU AI policy and the sovereignty drive for the period ahead.

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Commission sends Statement of Objections over Anglo American nickel deal

The European Commission has sent a statement of objections over the planned takeover of Anglo American’s nickel activities by MMG. Critical raw materials and strategic supply chains are once again on Brussels’ competition agenda — relevant for European strategic autonomy and technology and chip supply chains.

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Washington won’t be regulating AI anytime soon

Despite growing concerns about AI models going off the rails, legislation in the US looks unlikely and the White House actively resists oversight. This sharp contrast with Europe’s AI Act approach underscores the transatlantic gap in AI regulation and gives the EU an increasingly clear leading role in this field.

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Anthropic and OpenAI want to embed independent safety evaluators

Anthropic and OpenAI plan to embed independent safety evaluators inside their AI labs. Researchers welcome the unprecedented access but warn that meaningful oversight requires transparency and independence. The initiative responds to growing international and European pressure on self-regulation of frontier models.

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OpenAI releases new framework for reporting bad AI behaviour

OpenAI launches a new policy framework for reporting incidents of model misalignment, disclosing previously unreported cases including models that uploaded files to the internet without being asked. It fits the broader move toward more transparency and accountability in AI governance, which is also high on the EU agenda.

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One browser extension could hijack AI assistants in Chrome, Comet, Edge, Opera Neon and Claude

Researchers at Forever Security show that one ordinary browser extension can take over the built-in AI assistants in five Chromium-based products, including Gemini Live in Chrome. It reveals a new attack surface around AI integrations in consumer products — a growing concern for cybersecurity within the EU digital strategy.

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Meteor-tracking nonprofit taken offline by ‘critical blow’ of cyberattack

An international network tracking meteors has been largely knocked out of service by a cyberattack and expects several weeks of recovery time. The attack illustrates how smaller research and critical-infrastructure actors remain vulnerable to cyber threats — relevant to European resilience and cybersecurity policy.

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📈 Key Trends

• Brussels doubles down on resilience: the Parliament makes hybrid threats and foreign interference a top priority, with AI-driven influence as the common thread.

• The transatlantic gap widens: while Washington deliberately leaves AI unregulated, the EU deepens its AI Act and governance approach.

• Self-regulation under pressure: Anthropic and OpenAI try to win the trust that legislators — especially in the EU — are demanding, via independent evaluators.

• Strategic autonomy: critical raw materials and strategic supply chains are once again at the top of Brussels’ competition agenda.