Chancellor Friedrich Merz was not aligned with his coalition partner – Germany’s Social Democrats – in a last-ditch push to cut the EU’s rules for industrial AI, a letter obtained by Euractiv suggests.
The debate on these rules moved into the political spotlight on Tuesday night, after the European Parliament and the Council failed to agree on a deal to “simplify” the EU’s AI Act, with Merz’s European People’s Party (EPP) pushing for exactly the rule cuts he had advocated for previously in Parliament.
Last Sunday, Merz had publicly called for AI in industrial sectors to be “free” from a “corset” of EU rules, even though the Council had already agreed on the AI reform package through which these cuts could be realised, deciding not to include them, despite Germany’s opposition.
In Parliament, on the other hand, EPP lawmakers had succeeded in pushing for the sweeping changes to rules for AI in areas like machinery or toys, which consumer groups have warned…
