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Siemens and SAP call for EU to revise its AI regulations - FAZ
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 13, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 13, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Siemens and SAP CEOs urge the EU to revise AI regulations, arguing current laws hinder innovation. They emphasize reforming data rules over infrastructure investment.
ZURICH (Reuters) -Siemens and SAP CEOs have urged the European Union to revise its artificial intelligence legislation, saying the current rules stifle innovation.
SAP CEO Christian Klein and Siemens CEO Roland Busch told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that a new regulatory framework is needed to support rather than hinder technological advancement.
The EU's AI Act, which became law last year, governs the development and use of AI systems to ensure they are safe, transparent and respect fundamental rights.
The law classifies AI applications into risk categories, according to which providers must meet certain security and transparency requirements.
But Siemens' Busch said the Act was a key reason Europe is lagging, adding overlapping and sometimes contradictory regulations are hampering progress.
He said the EU's Data Act, another law which sets out obligations on how companies use consumer and corporate data, was "toxic" for developing digital business models.
While several companies including Google owner Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta recently wrote to Brussels asking for the rules to be postponed, Busch declined to sign their letter, saying the proposal did not go far enough.
SAP's Klein warned against simply copying the U.S. and only investing heavily in infrastructure and data centres, emphasizing that infrastructure shortages are not the main barrier in Europe.
Instead, both CEOs called for reforming data rules before investing in data centres.
"We are sitting on a treasure trove of data in Europe, but we are not yet able to tap into it," Busch told the newspaper. "It's not access to computing capacity that we're currently lacking, but the release of resources."
(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Siemens and SAP CEOs urged the EU to revise its AI legislation, claiming that the current rules stifle innovation and hinder technological advancement.
The EU's AI Act classifies AI applications into risk categories, but Siemens' CEO stated that overlapping and contradictory regulations are hampering progress in Europe.
SAP's CEO described the EU's Data Act as 'toxic' for developing digital business models, indicating that it imposes burdensome obligations on companies regarding data usage.
Both CEOs called for reforming data rules before making investments in data centers, emphasizing that access to data is currently a significant barrier.
Busch highlighted that Europe has a wealth of data that is not being effectively utilized, stating that the main issue is not access to computing capacity but rather the ability to tap into this data.
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