The AI Continent Action Plan serves as the cornerstone of Europe’s comprehensive AI vision, aiming to strengthen competitiveness while ensuring innovation remains trustworthy, human-centric, and aligned with European democratic values and cultural diversity.

Apply AI Strategy

The Apply AI Strategy sets out how Europe intends to scale the use of AI and advanced digital technologies across its economy and public sector. Rather than introducing new legislative initiatives, it proposes the deployment of targeted AI initiatives to address sectoral challenges, broad measures to address ecosystem-wide issues, and a single governance mechanism to guarantee dialogue among stakeholders.

This push aims to improve AI usage and accelerate the development of homemade AI technologies by removing barriers to the adoption in strategic sectors and public services, thereby strengthening EU AI sovereignty. This is a direct response to perceived AI dependencies and the potential risks they could pose to supply chains and the bloc’s independence.

AI first

At its core, the plan aims to make “AI first” a standard approach for European industry and public sector. This “AI first” approach pushes for every stakeholder involved in key industrial sectors to always consider the added value of AI in all their operations and tasks. It identifies eleven priority sectors: healthcare, robotics, manufacturing and construction, defence and space, mobility, electronic communications, energy, climate and environment, agri-food, culture and media, and the public sector.

For each of these key sectors, the Commission is introducing targeted actions. Health, for instance, will see the introduction of AI-powered screening centres to improve early detection and the launch of an AI drug discovery challenge to provide access to the compute capacity of AI Factories. In energy, the Commission will support the development of AI models that can improve grid management and energy efficiency through improved forecasting and optimisation capabilities. The “AI first” policy will also benefit the defence sector by enabling stronger situational awareness and providing stronger computational capacity thanks to the AI Factories.

In the cultural sphere, it will support AI-driven virtual studios and a targeted study on safeguards against copyright misuse in generative AI.

Barriers and governance

To address persistent barriers, such as limited digital skills, data fragmentation, and uneven access to computing power, the Commission will reinforce the AI Skills Academy. This offers sector-specific, hands-on AI literacy programs and coordinates training from other EU initiatives. Additionally, the Commission intends to expand existing Digital Innovation Hubs into local AI “experience centres” and launch a Frontier AI Initiative to boost Europe’s sovereign AI capabilities.

Governance will rest on three pillars: the AI Board, an independent advisory body composed of senior representatives from EU Member States to ensure coordination at the national level; the Apply AI Alliance linking policymakers and stakeholders; and a new AI Observatory monitoring trends and supporting stakeholders’ dialogues.

Funding

The Strategy outlines how around €1 billion from existing programmes, notably Digital Europe, Horizon Europe, EU4Health, and Creative Europe will incentivise the application of AI. It is not, however, accompanied by announcements for new legislation or dedicated budget. It signals strong political intent to integrate AI into Europe’s industrial fabric, but its success will depend on how effectively Member States translate this roadmap into tangible adoption and innovation.

A European Strategy for AI in science

The European Strategy for AI in Science aims to address the unique needs of the research community: ensuring scientists have access to high-performance computing, quality datasets, advanced algorithmic tools, and a supportive regulatory environment. The strategy also aims to improve the EU’s overall strategic autonomy in science.

Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE)

The strategy proposes a Resource for AI Science in Europe (RAISE) as a virtual institute that pools talent, computational capacity, data, and research funding for AI. Its vision outlines specific actions to support and incentivise the use and development of AI by the European scientific community. RAISE will operate along two main pillars: a) Science for AI, supporting basic research to advance core AI capabilities, in particular safe and secure frontier AI; and b) AI in Science, promoting the use of AI for progress in different scientific disciplines.

In addition, RAISE will actively foster interactions between these two pillars, with the Commission aiming to launch a pilot phase by selecting leading European AI labs and developing a network of leading research groups working with AI in a specific scientific discipline or advancing AI capabilities in that area. These will receive long-term funding and access to AI resources, such as computational power, and will be called Thematic Networks of Excellence in AI in science and the European Network of Frontier AI Labs. This configuration represents a Commission attempt to introduce a decentralised scheme going forward in AI governance.

The Communication also details how ongoing and upcoming funding actions will ensure the sustainability of this governance structure, including: €58 million under the RAISE pilot for Thematic Networks of Excellence in AI and Doctoral Networks on AI in Science to train, retain, and attract the best AI and scientific talent; €600 million from Horizon Europe to enhance and expand access to computational power for science, securing dedicated access to AI Gigafactories for EU researchers and startups; and the doubling of Horizon Europe’s annual investments in AI. The 2025 Horizon Europe Work Programme is currently investing €700 million for AI in science, with further funding planned for 2026-27, under the RAISE pilot.

Nevertheless, there is an open question as to whether this funding is enough to position the EU at the forefront of the AI global race in science. The discussion will continue throughout MFF negotiations as the European Commission intends to work with Member States, research, public and private stakeholders, to further develop RAISE.

Throughout RAISE’s implementation, it remains to be seen whether the governance prototype and funding streams will attract resources and talent to Europe’s science domains, and whether the initiative will narrow Europe’s AI adoption gap, bolster its scientific and technological competitiveness, and reduce dependence on external technology powers in an era of rapid AI-driven transformation.

Conclusions

The two strategies outline an ambitious operational and coordinated plan for scaling AI while strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty. By building on existing programmes and improving data access through the upcoming Data Union Strategy, the EU seeks to reduce fragmentation and make AI deployment more coherent across sectors and Member States.

Yet, industry and others will be watching closely to see if the Commission’s bet on efficiency and coordination is enough to bridge the structural gap with the US and China, whose AI ecosystems enjoy far greater investment, faster innovation cycles, and stronger private–public synergies. Europe’s approach enhances governance and inclusiveness, but its limited financial scale and decentralised execution could slow tangible impact.

The strategies set a solid foundation for sustainable AI growth but will coherence – without comparable scale and speed – be enough to make Europe a true AI leader on the global stage?

Image source: European Parliament