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On Wednesday, 19 November, the European Commission announced what many observers had suspected for months: the implementation of the AI Act’s rules on ‘high-risk’ systems has been delayed from 2026 to December 2027. This anticipated news marks one of the most significant reversals in the history of the European legislature. The Union, which aspired to be the first in the world to regulate artificial intelligence, must now concede that it cannot support its implementation within the planned timeframe. The official reason is ‘technical’: there are no standards or guidelines, and no truly operational national authorities. The real reason, however, is political: the European model of AI, which prioritises constraints over development, has reached its limits. According to Politico, intense pressure from the Trump administration, the tech industry and several national governments — including Germany, France, Scandinavia, and Central Europe — has convinced Brussels that continuing in this vein would mean only one thing: disarming Europe in the global competition for AI.
AI Cannot be Governed by Decree: Europe Must Replace Rules with Real Industrial Power
The continent that wanted to ‘teach the world a lesson’ is discovering what conservatives have been saying for years: technology is not created by regulation, but by investment, research and industrial capacity. While the United States and China are investing billions in proprietary AI ecosystems — which are also fundamental to defence, security, and the economy — the EU imagined that it could become ‘the global regulator’ without possessing the necessary infrastructure, industrial power, or technological critical mass.
This distortion is now clear for all to see:
– too many constraints for European SMEs, which risk being unable to afford compliance;
– rules are being written before technical standards even exist;
– an absence of a European industrial strategy on AI, replaced by the illusion of the ‘Brussels effect’;
– delays in national agencies that are supposed to enforce complex and costly rules.
The postponement is therefore an acknowledgement that: Europe was at risk of paralysis. Is suspension good news? Yes, but only if we change direction. The postponement will only be beneficial if Europe uses this time to correct its course. This is where a conservative point of view based on fundamental principles comes into play.
1. Prioritise innovation over bureaucracy. AI must, of course, be reliable and human-centred. However, if regulation becomes an insurmountable barrier, American Big Tech and Chinese state giants will be the only beneficiaries, not European companies. Regulation must be a roadmap for development, not a brake.
2. Individual freedoms as a foundation The ECR has repeatedly emphasised that inadequate AI regulation can harm the industry and threaten fundamental rights, for example through:
– intrusive biometric surveillance
– opaque algorithms in public decision-making
– non-transparent automatic evaluation systems.
Therefore, while we support protecting citizens, we oppose a central technocracy that decides everything from Brussels.
3. European digital sovereignty. For conservative Europeans, the most important point is simple: the EU cannot just be a global regulatory body. It must become a sovereign technological player. This means investing in research and European AI models, strengthening European semiconductor, cloud and supercomputing supply chains, ensuring autonomy in sensitive technologies such as defence, security and strategic data, and preventing regulation from stifling any attempt at continental leadership.
Brussels has done the right thing by stopping a train hurtling towards a wall, but postponing without making corrections would be just another symptom of European immobility. What is needed is a change of direction that protects citizens’ rights, defends economic freedom and revives the competitiveness of European businesses. Above all, it must guarantee the continent’s digital sovereignty.
Only then will Europe be able to take its place at the global AI table as a protagonist, not a spectator.