EU to evaluate dangers posed by 4 key applied sciences and take into account export controls

The European Fee has established a listing of 4 key applied sciences which will pose a threat to the bloc’s financial safety, and is about to evaluate whether or not it’s going to impose export controls on them.

Applied sciences round synthetic intelligence, superior semiconductors, quantum computing and biotechnology are “thought-about extremely prone to current probably the most delicate and speedy dangers,” the Fee introduced on Tuesday.

The Fee goals to finish threat assessments of those 4 key applied sciences by the top of this 12 months. An extra six applied sciences shall be assessed at a later date, as a part of the European Financial Safety Technique introduced in June.

That technique meant to set out “quite a few actions to be taken to deal with dangers to the resilience of provide chains, dangers to the bodily and cyber safety of essential infrastructures, dangers associated to know-how safety and know-how leakage, and dangers of weaponization of financial dependencies or financial coercion.”

The Fee mentioned it made the advice to make the danger assessments with out prejudging what the outcomes of these assessments could also be, corresponding to export controls.

“Know-how is at the moment on the coronary heart of geopolitical competitors and the EU needs to be a participant, and never a playground,” mentioned the Fee’s vice-president Věra Jourová.

“To be a participant, we’d like a united EU place, based mostly on a standard evaluation of the dangers. With this method we’ll stay an open and predictable world associate, however one who nurtures its technological edge and addresses its dependencies. Our single market will solely get stronger because of this in all its components,” she added.

Though the bloc’s govt mentioned the evaluation wouldn’t concentrate on any third nations and the advice doesn’t title China, the transfer comes because the European Union pursues its coverage of “de-risking” quite than “decoupling” from China.

“We have to repeatedly monitor our essential applied sciences, assess our threat publicity and — as and when essential — take measures to protect our strategic pursuits and our safety,” mentioned Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the interior market.

“Europe is adapting to the brand new geopolitical realities, placing an finish to the period of naivety and performing as an actual geopolitical energy,” Breton added.