For once, there is a consensus: the Foreign Affairs Council is expected to give the political signal today in Brussels to ease or partially suspend the sanctions regime against Syria. This is important if the EU wants to be a player in the region and have an influence on the new rulers. As a gesture to the Syrian population, measures that could be suspended quickly must be identified, according to a non-paper prepared by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and five of her counterparts.
It gets complicated when it comes to the details and technical implementation. The EU has only decided on some of the punitive measures autonomously; a large part is the implementation of UN sanctions. In a first step, for example, air traffic between the EU and Syria is to be facilitated. This would require the lifting of certain restrictions on dual-use goods, which hinder the repair of radar systems, for example. It would also be important to ease the punitive measures against the financial sector in order to make investments in the country possible.
The sanctions also stand in the way of repairing the ailing power plants and electricity grid. In any case, it will not be long before the obstacles to humanitarian aid and reconstruction are removed. According to a diplomat, it will take at least two weeks until the necessary legal texts have been drawn up. It is more complicated to relax sanctions than to impose them. EU foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas wants to propose a gradual and reversible relaxation. Punitive measures could also be reintroduced if developments in Damascus go in the wrong direction.
Have a good start to the week!
On Wednesday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present the so-called “Competitiveness Compass.” The document, which is available to Table.Briefings, summarizes the Commission’s economic policy priorities. For the first time, it shows when which parts of the economic policy agenda are to be presented. So far, there had been announcements for the Commission’s first hundred days.
The compass is divided into four parts:
The aim of promoting innovation is to close the EU’s innovation gap. The start-up and scale-up strategy aims to create better framework conditions for the establishment and growth of start-ups – flanked by the Savings and Investment Union and an EIB TechEU investment program. The industry welcomes the fact that the 28th regime appears in the schedule.
An AI Continent Strategy is new. It aims to exploit network effects at the European level by setting up “mega AI factories.” They are intended to increase Europe’s computing power and be available to start-ups, researchers and industry to train their AI models. Also on the agenda: the Apply AI Strategy and Data Union Strategy (Q3 2025), the Quantum Strategy (Q2 2025) and the Quantum Act, the Space Act (Q3 2025) and the Digital Networks Act (Q4 2025), which is intended to create the infrastructural prerequisites.
The Commission is planning a series of action plans to keep jobs and industrial capacities of strategically important industries in the EU. It was already known that the Clean Industrial Deal and an action plan for affordable energy will be presented in the first quarter, probably at the end of February. A new framework for state aid law is due in the second quarter and the “Sustainable Transports Investment Pact” in the third quarter. A package of measures for the chemical industry is not planned until the fourth quarter. CBAM will also be reviewed as early as 2025 and an action plan for the steel and metals industry will be presented. The Commission is also planning a “Circular Economy Act,” but this is not scheduled until the fourth quarter of 2026.
In times of geopolitical uncertainty, security of supply is a high priority, particularly in the areas of armaments, raw materials and medicines. Commissioner Kubilius’ white paper on European defense is thus expected before the end of this quarter. Among other things, it should contain ideas for joint procurement and better integration of the defense industry. Also in this quarter, a Union Preparedness Strategy is expected to deal with topics such as the procurement and stockpiling of crisis-critical goods.
The Commission is planning a platform for the joint procurement of important raw materials for the middle of the year. However, the Commission also wants to secure raw materials by concluding “Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships” with third countries, among other things.
The European Climate Adaptation Plan and the revision of procurement law are not due until 2026. The Commission expressly wants to introduce a “European preference” in important sectors.
With the horizontal measures, the Commission wants to improve the business environment for all sectors. This includes, for example, the omnibus package to reduce reporting obligations, planned for the end of February. In the second quarter, an internal market strategy is then to tackle the persistent internal market obstacles. The Commission intends to strengthen the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET), for example.
The strategy for a savings and investment union is also to be presented in the second quarter. However, the Competitiveness Compass does not provide any details on this. This summer, the Commission will present its proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) from 2028, a competitiveness fund and a competitiveness mechanism. Similar to the Recovery and Resilience Facility, this is intended to link funds to the member states to reform conditions.
Mr. Friedl, what was your first thought when you heard about Stargate?
That we Europeans need to get a move on. Stargate is a wake-up call and a powerful announcement. Whether it will become reality remains to be seen. But the US’ lead in AI investment is already clear to see.
What consequences should Germany and Europe draw from this wake-up call?
We need to catch up in terms of private investment. But the German government and the Commission must also create the conditions for artificial intelligence to be competitive here. There are a few things that can be done.
What is the first point?
The topic of regulation. Europe was certainly a pioneer in this area – but a pioneer in setting limits, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage compared to the USA.
President Trump not only announced Stargate, but also withdrew his predecessor’s executive orders on the regulation of AI.
Of course, these regulations were not nearly as extensive as the AI Act. But there were limits. They have now been blown up. Europe, on the other hand, has the most comprehensive regulatory package on AI in the world. It is sensible to create a framework and take the risks of AI appropriately seriously.
Now comes a ‘but’…
That’s right. But it is also important to ensure that companies do not have to employ a host of lawyers before they are allowed to collect and feed in data. Regulation must become much simpler. Trump has done that with the stroke of a pen.
Given the risks of AI, are you not concerned that AI is now unregulated in the US?
That actually worries me. At the same time, we are facing global competition. Like the USA, China is investing heavily in AI. And is going much further in collecting private data from the population than we ever wanted to. We have to weigh the risks involved if we fall behind in AI development. The answer cannot be that we recognize the risks and regulate them so that we are safe. Because we won’t be if the USA and China simply gloss over these risks or fail to address them. We have to find a new answer.
Do you want to abolish the AI Act?
That may be a little exaggerated. But a re-evaluation of the AI Act to identify competitive disadvantages makes sense.
Regulation was your first point. Where else do we need to start?
We need a better transfer of academic knowledge into practice in Germany and Europe. AI start-ups play a major role in this. We can see that there are some places in Europe where this is going very well. In Paris and Munich, for example. But we need a stronger start-up culture in order to put AI topics into practice.
This is a topic that we have been discussing for years. You come from university. What is going wrong?
Promoting the start-up culture takes time. The current federal government has made progress, for example with the start-up factories. But we need more.
Doesn’t this also include better financing?
This is a second important component that affects start-ups just as much as investment projects by large companies. We have too few opportunities in Germany and Europe to mobilize sufficient capital. Some start-ups go to the USA because the capital markets work better there. Mistral in France is just one example.
The lack of venture capital is also a perennial issue…
Yes, and this is where the European Commission can start. There are many proposals on the table. The Capital Markets Union should be driven forward with vigor.
Trump has promised Stargate investors cheap energy.
That’s right. Data centers are insane energy guzzlers. In Germany, data centers already accounted for 4.3 percent of total electricity consumption in 2023. High electricity costs are also a competitive disadvantage for data centers. We also need to find an answer to this.
How annoyed are you that the political debate is more about how we can save the automotive industry instead of promoting future technologies?
Of course it annoys me when we use state subsidies to save old industries. But the strength of our economy is its industrial core. It would also be wrong to let it die with our eyes closed without at the same time focusing all our efforts on new technologies. We can transform the automotive industry by gearing it towards software and artificial intelligence. Germany and Europe must succeed in combining our domain knowledge with innovation. This is our chance to play a role in global competition.
Is the Dieter Schwarz Foundation drawing direct conclusions from the Stargate project?
The Stargate project confirms that we are on the right track with the development of our ecosystem in Heilbronn. We are working hard to bring research institutions together, ensure the transfer of knowledge and drive forward AI applications. But €500 billion naturally exceeds our resources many times over.
Do we need more investors like the Dieter Schwarz Foundation in Germany and Europe, including on the part of large companies?
The big players such as SAP and Siemens are also investing heavily. But this is not the case across the breadth of the German economy. We actually have a deficit there.
Does Germany have a chance on its own, or should we rather think in European dimensions?
Yes, we have to think in European terms and coordinate with France in particular. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Commission has to steer everything centrally. We also need to strengthen private initiatives. We are experiencing in Heilbronn that we are much faster and more flexible as a private initiative. We need a little more flexibility at the EU level.
Do you work together with other AI centers in Europe?
Yes, we are at the AI Action Summit in Paris, for example. We work together with institutions in Paris, Oxford, Israel, Singapore and Stanford. Europe alone is often too small, global networking is crucial.
If you were allowed to make decisions in Trump’s style, how would you proceed with AI?
Europe’s strength lies in its pluralistic society, where we have to find majorities for a position. I don’t believe that I alone would be able to make the right decisions. I’m also not sure that Donald Trump is right. America also lives from checks and balances. But we must become faster, tackle our structures and make bolder decisions.
Gunther Friedl studied physics and business administration. He was Dean of the TUM School of Management from 2010 to 2024 and has headed the Ludwig Fröhler Institute since 2012. He has been a member of the management board of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation since January. The foundation is part of the consortium at the Innovation Park AI in Heilbronn (IPAI) and provided the start-up funding. The IPAI sees itself as “probably the most ambitious project for applied artificial intelligence in Europe.”
For once, there is a consensus: the Foreign Affairs Council is expected to give the political signal today in Brussels to ease or partially suspend the sanctions regime against Syria. This is important if the EU wants to be a player in the region and have an influence on the new rulers. As a gesture to the Syrian population, measures that could be suspended quickly must be identified, according to a non-paper prepared by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and five of her counterparts.
It gets complicated when it comes to the details and technical implementation. The EU has only decided on some of the punitive measures autonomously; a large part is the implementation of UN sanctions. In a first step, for example, air traffic between the EU and Syria is to be facilitated. This would require the lifting of certain restrictions on dual-use goods, which hinder the repair of radar systems, for example. It would also be important to ease the punitive measures against the financial sector in order to make investments in the country possible.
The sanctions also stand in the way of repairing the ailing power plants and electricity grid. In any case, it will not be long before the obstacles to humanitarian aid and reconstruction are removed. According to a diplomat, it will take at least two weeks until the necessary legal texts have been drawn up. It is more complicated to relax sanctions than to impose them. EU foreign affairs representative Kaja Kallas wants to propose a gradual and reversible relaxation. Punitive measures could also be reintroduced if developments in Damascus go in the wrong direction.
Have a good start to the week!
On Wednesday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present the so-called “Competitiveness Compass.” The document, which is available to Table.Briefings, summarizes the Commission’s economic policy priorities. For the first time, it shows when which parts of the economic policy agenda are to be presented. So far, there had been announcements for the Commission’s first hundred days.
The compass is divided into four parts:
The aim of promoting innovation is to close the EU’s innovation gap. The start-up and scale-up strategy aims to create better framework conditions for the establishment and growth of start-ups – flanked by the Savings and Investment Union and an EIB TechEU investment program. The industry welcomes the fact that the 28th regime appears in the schedule.
An AI Continent Strategy is new. It aims to exploit network effects at the European level by setting up “mega AI factories.” They are intended to increase Europe’s computing power and be available to start-ups, researchers and industry to train their AI models. Also on the agenda: the Apply AI Strategy and Data Union Strategy (Q3 2025), the Quantum Strategy (Q2 2025) and the Quantum Act, the Space Act (Q3 2025) and the Digital Networks Act (Q4 2025), which is intended to create the infrastructural prerequisites.
The Commission is planning a series of action plans to keep jobs and industrial capacities of strategically important industries in the EU. It was already known that the Clean Industrial Deal and an action plan for affordable energy will be presented in the first quarter, probably at the end of February. A new framework for state aid law is due in the second quarter and the “Sustainable Transports Investment Pact” in the third quarter. A package of measures for the chemical industry is not planned until the fourth quarter. CBAM will also be reviewed as early as 2025 and an action plan for the steel and metals industry will be presented. The Commission is also planning a “Circular Economy Act,” but this is not scheduled until the fourth quarter of 2026.
In times of geopolitical uncertainty, security of supply is a high priority, particularly in the areas of armaments, raw materials and medicines. Commissioner Kubilius’ white paper on European defense is thus expected before the end of this quarter. Among other things, it should contain ideas for joint procurement and better integration of the defense industry. Also in this quarter, a Union Preparedness Strategy is expected to deal with topics such as the procurement and stockpiling of crisis-critical goods.
The Commission is planning a platform for the joint procurement of important raw materials for the middle of the year. However, the Commission also wants to secure raw materials by concluding “Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships” with third countries, among other things.
The European Climate Adaptation Plan and the revision of procurement law are not due until 2026. The Commission expressly wants to introduce a “European preference” in important sectors.
With the horizontal measures, the Commission wants to improve the business environment for all sectors. This includes, for example, the omnibus package to reduce reporting obligations, planned for the end of February. In the second quarter, an internal market strategy is then to tackle the persistent internal market obstacles. The Commission intends to strengthen the Single Market Enforcement Taskforce (SMET), for example.
The strategy for a savings and investment union is also to be presented in the second quarter. However, the Competitiveness Compass does not provide any details on this. This summer, the Commission will present its proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) from 2028, a competitiveness fund and a competitiveness mechanism. Similar to the Recovery and Resilience Facility, this is intended to link funds to the member states to reform conditions.
Mr. Friedl, what was your first thought when you heard about Stargate?
That we Europeans need to get a move on. Stargate is a wake-up call and a powerful announcement. Whether it will become reality remains to be seen. But the US’ lead in AI investment is already clear to see.
What consequences should Germany and Europe draw from this wake-up call?
We need to catch up in terms of private investment. But the German government and the Commission must also create the conditions for artificial intelligence to be competitive here. There are a few things that can be done.
What is the first point?
The topic of regulation. Europe was certainly a pioneer in this area – but a pioneer in setting limits, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage compared to the USA.
President Trump not only announced Stargate, but also withdrew his predecessor’s executive orders on the regulation of AI.
Of course, these regulations were not nearly as extensive as the AI Act. But there were limits. They have now been blown up. Europe, on the other hand, has the most comprehensive regulatory package on AI in the world. It is sensible to create a framework and take the risks of AI appropriately seriously.
Now comes a ‘but’…
That’s right. But it is also important to ensure that companies do not have to employ a host of lawyers before they are allowed to collect and feed in data. Regulation must become much simpler. Trump has done that with the stroke of a pen.
Given the risks of AI, are you not concerned that AI is now unregulated in the US?
That actually worries me. At the same time, we are facing global competition. Like the USA, China is investing heavily in AI. And is going much further in collecting private data from the population than we ever wanted to. We have to weigh the risks involved if we fall behind in AI development. The answer cannot be that we recognize the risks and regulate them so that we are safe. Because we won’t be if the USA and China simply gloss over these risks or fail to address them. We have to find a new answer.
Do you want to abolish the AI Act?
That may be a little exaggerated. But a re-evaluation of the AI Act to identify competitive disadvantages makes sense.
Regulation was your first point. Where else do we need to start?
We need a better transfer of academic knowledge into practice in Germany and Europe. AI start-ups play a major role in this. We can see that there are some places in Europe where this is going very well. In Paris and Munich, for example. But we need a stronger start-up culture in order to put AI topics into practice.
This is a topic that we have been discussing for years. You come from university. What is going wrong?
Promoting the start-up culture takes time. The current federal government has made progress, for example with the start-up factories. But we need more.
Doesn’t this also include better financing?
This is a second important component that affects start-ups just as much as investment projects by large companies. We have too few opportunities in Germany and Europe to mobilize sufficient capital. Some start-ups go to the USA because the capital markets work better there. Mistral in France is just one example.
The lack of venture capital is also a perennial issue…
Yes, and this is where the European Commission can start. There are many proposals on the table. The Capital Markets Union should be driven forward with vigor.
Trump has promised Stargate investors cheap energy.
That’s right. Data centers are insane energy guzzlers. In Germany, data centers already accounted for 4.3 percent of total electricity consumption in 2023. High electricity costs are also a competitive disadvantage for data centers. We also need to find an answer to this.
How annoyed are you that the political debate is more about how we can save the automotive industry instead of promoting future technologies?
Of course it annoys me when we use state subsidies to save old industries. But the strength of our economy is its industrial core. It would also be wrong to let it die with our eyes closed without at the same time focusing all our efforts on new technologies. We can transform the automotive industry by gearing it towards software and artificial intelligence. Germany and Europe must succeed in combining our domain knowledge with innovation. This is our chance to play a role in global competition.
Is the Dieter Schwarz Foundation drawing direct conclusions from the Stargate project?
The Stargate project confirms that we are on the right track with the development of our ecosystem in Heilbronn. We are working hard to bring research institutions together, ensure the transfer of knowledge and drive forward AI applications. But €500 billion naturally exceeds our resources many times over.
Do we need more investors like the Dieter Schwarz Foundation in Germany and Europe, including on the part of large companies?
The big players such as SAP and Siemens are also investing heavily. But this is not the case across the breadth of the German economy. We actually have a deficit there.
Does Germany have a chance on its own, or should we rather think in European dimensions?
Yes, we have to think in European terms and coordinate with France in particular. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Commission has to steer everything centrally. We also need to strengthen private initiatives. We are experiencing in Heilbronn that we are much faster and more flexible as a private initiative. We need a little more flexibility at the EU level.
Do you work together with other AI centers in Europe?
Yes, we are at the AI Action Summit in Paris, for example. We work together with institutions in Paris, Oxford, Israel, Singapore and Stanford. Europe alone is often too small, global networking is crucial.
If you were allowed to make decisions in Trump’s style, how would you proceed with AI?
Europe’s strength lies in its pluralistic society, where we have to find majorities for a position. I don’t believe that I alone would be able to make the right decisions. I’m also not sure that Donald Trump is right. America also lives from checks and balances. But we must become faster, tackle our structures and make bolder decisions.
Gunther Friedl studied physics and business administration. He was Dean of the TUM School of Management from 2010 to 2024 and has headed the Ludwig Fröhler Institute since 2012. He has been a member of the management board of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation since January. The foundation is part of the consortium at the Innovation Park AI in Heilbronn (IPAI) and provided the start-up funding. The IPAI sees itself as “probably the most ambitious project for applied artificial intelligence in Europe.”
