🚀 🇪🇺 Welcome to DG Progress! 🇪🇺 🚀 The European Commission doesn’t yet have a Directorate-General dedicated to Europe’s economic, social, and consumer progress—so we’re filling in. DG Progress is here to help bridge the gap between Europe’s builders and our policymaking bubble. We will shed light on Europe's strengths, advocate for what its innovators need to make the next great leaps, and share ways to get involved. 📬 Subscribe here: dgprogress.eu/

Europe's AI potential? €1,65 trillion 🚀 That's according to a new study by Implement Consulting Group: cms.implementconsultinggroup… ... but that potential depends on whether frontier models and European AI applications can continue to leverage large and diverse data sets. Without this access, models show a 50% drop in complex tasks.... which would ultimately put up to €600 billion of Europe's opportunity at risk. 🇪🇺 The authors recommendations for the EU? 1. Keep the current text-and-data mining exemptions 2. Keep opt-out practical, with standards like robots.text 3. Let voluntary licensing regimes grow Europe has the research capacity, talent, and industrial base to be competitive in AI. What it needs now is legal clarity.

'We lost social media and search... but quantum computing isn't settle yet' ⏳ Arm's co-founder lays out the opportunity for Europe and how the new Scale Up Europe Fund can help us get there 🚀 Super interview by @etnshow

DG Progress is hosting its first event! 🎉 🥂 Join us on the 23rd June to celebrate European tech progress – and the start of European summer ☀️ Sign up here 👉 forms.gle/4QBp6nrGVkmzQyCL6

"There has never been a better time to build or join a tech startup in Europe" 🚀 That's the message from the Built In Europe campaign by Balderton Capital. The campaign celebrates European entrepreneurs at startups like Proxima Fusion, MistralAI, Wayve, Revolut, Synthesia, alan, Lassie, Moonhub, Lovable, Hived, Voi, ElevenLabs, Quantum Systems, and more. Not waiting for permission, just building 🏗️ The campaign is helping founders discover accelerators and incubators 👉 builtineurope.com/build And directing talent to startups that have open roles 👉builtineurope.com/jobs 🇪🇺 It's up to the EU now to help companies like these scale. The proposed EU-Inc initiative, if designed right, is a good place to start.

💬 “We didn’t start running, we didn’t start even walking, and we already had in front of us all the obstacles to not be able to make even the first step.” Strong words from Christophe Fouquet, the boss of ASML, Europe's largest company, in an interview with POLITICO. 🔹 Fouquet said the EU's AI Act could encourage European companies to develop AI outside the bloc "If they cannot do it hear, they will do it elsewhere". 🔹 But what about the Commission's simplification push? “The idea that you make something very complex, then simplify it, and that you end up with something good … is a bit strange." Lesson here: don't make regulation complex in the first place. 🔹 Should governments favour European companies in public procurement? Probably not. "No country will ever have it all... to have preference, you first have to have something you can prefer.” The solution? Create the conditions that create AI demand, and leave it to the industrial sector to respond and build out infrastructure ("because they know how to do it"). Let industry cook! 🚀 pro.politico.eu/news/218727

🛣️ On 3 June, the EU will publish its Tech Sovereignty Package, a strategy to build sovereign AI, chips, and cloud. 🇪🇺 Europe's startups need the best tools available to build and compete globally, so we hope the Commission takes inspiration from the UK (Europe's leading tech & AI hub). James Wise - who chairs the UK's Sovereign AI Unit - outlines the UK's approach to sovereignty, and makes the case to look outward not inward to build AI capacity: 💬 "It would be incredibly short-sighted to say Brits shouldn't have access to the best software because we don't like some of the shareholders on the cap table of these companies." Check out the full conversation with the FT's John Thornhill for Sifted's Startup Europe podcast 👇 podcast.sifted.eu/1877446/ep…

🌉 We spoke with Tom Wehmeier, Partner and Head of Intelligence at Atomico, a European venture capital firm that produces annual State of European Tech reports, about Europe's tech ecosystem. ❓𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 11 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞? 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧? 🎤 "Eleven years ago, a billion-dollar European tech company was exceptional. Today, we’re tracking a path toward trillion-dollar outcomes. That shift in the ceiling is reflected throughout the ecosystem — in the scale of entrepreneurial ambition, the calibre of talent willing to commit, the conviction of capital behind it..." ❓𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞. 𝐈𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬? 🎤 "I’d start with the friction we still see in the system. Nearly 70% of founders say the regulatory environment is too restrictive. Europe must make it easier and faster to build, grow and sell across borders, at scale. One rulebook, one market, one standard. The upcoming EU-INC proposal is one important step in this direction, but the true prize remains delivering a true single market..." ❓𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐲𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦? 🎤 "Fortunately, I see this gap as narrower than it’s ever been. There’s genuine alignment now on the problem statement — what’s required to make Europe the best place to start and scale entrepreneurial innovation. More policymakers get what needs fixing..." Read the full interview here 👉 dgprogress.eu/p/dg-progress-…

euronews.com/video/2026/05/1… 👏 Congratulations to Mario Draghi for receiving the 2026 Charlemagne Prize 🇪🇺 The prize awards work done in the service of European unity. "Super Mario" has been Europe's chief advocate for competitiveness, including through his influential report, and the guru continues to push EU leaders towards action 🚀 At last weeks ceremony, Draghi warned that Europe risks falling behind without further deeper integration and major investment. 💬 "Our task now is to create that same dynamic again in energy, technology and defence. European leaders know where the work lies. They must now decide whether they are willing to put substance before process, and choose the instruments that can achieve it."