5 things to know about EU tech security chief Henna Virkkunen’s hearing

BRUSSELS — From artificial intelligence to cloud and chips, Europe is facing devastating gaps in the global race to create and control technology. 

But that wasn’t top of mind for European Parliament lawmakers quizzing Europe’s incoming technology and security chief on Tuesday evening.

Instead, one man was: Elon Musk. 

Henna Virkkunen, a Finnish politician and long-time European Parliament member, is expected to take the reins of EU tech policy as executive vice president soon. She’ll lead the bloc’s attempts to boost its tech industries with investment and deregulation — under the watchful eye of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 

In a three-hour hearing on Tuesday, Parliament members tested whether she’s up for the job, asking how she plans to make the Continent more competitive on key technologies and, at the same time, guide the bloc’s ambitions to build a true defense policy and prevent its democracies from toppling due to disinformation and decline. 

Here are five things to know about Virkkunen’s grilling:

1. Musk looms over EU tech plans

Virkkunen left the hearing with one name echoing in her ears: Elon Musk. 

She was asked time and again whether she would stand firm in the face of U.S. pressure to not challenge the owner of X, the social media platform facing the EU’s first regulatory probe under its new social media law, the Digital Services Act (DSA). 

Musk, the world’s richest man, was the most high-profile booster of Donald Trump’s election campaign and was hailed by Trump as a “super genius” in the latter’s victory speech last week. Vice President-elect JD Vance has previously threatened to pull support for NATO if Europe goes after Musk. 

Virkkunen on Tuesday took a quintessential Brussels approach to the issue, sticking to her script and spelling out the same, legalistic answer all evening: Any company operating in Europe must abide by its rules. She said she wanted to speed up the investigations under the DSA, but the work needed to be “evidence-based.”

She stopped short of any comment on how Musk has failed to stop misinformation and harmful content from spreading on X — a big contrast with incumbent EU Commission Vice President Věra Jourová, who called Musk a “promoter of evil” only a month ago and told POLITICO he “is not able to recognize good and evil.”

Dodging the Musk questions, Virkkunen also underscored a conundrum she’ll face in the coming years. One half of her mandate is to ensure European security, for which EU countries are heavily reliant on the U.S. The other half is to boost European “tech sovereignty,” which often means going head to head with American tech giants dominating social media, cloud, AI and other key technologies — and risking rubbing the U.S. the wrong way. 

A moment of truth will be when EU services wrap up their probe into Musk’s X and its content moderation policies. 

X was charged by the EU in July for breaching those rules over verified users, advertising transparency and giving researchers access to data. The Commission is currently preparing a fine that could go up to 6 percent of X’s annual global revenue — or even higher, as the Commission is considering calculating the penalty from income derived from Musk’s other companies, including SpaceX and Neuralink.

2. The great tech gap is clear

Virkkunen had no problem pointing to Europe’s many shortcomings in 5G and fiber rollout, artificial intelligence, microchips, cloud capabilities and digital skills, warning repeatedly that the bloc was “lagging behind” and faced a “widening” gap.

In one reveal, she disclosed that 42 percent of Europeans’ 5G communications runs over equipment from high-risk vendors Huawei and ZTE. “Member states have not been taking this seriously enough,” she added.

She touted the upcoming EU Cloud and AI Development Act, courtesy of Mario Draghi, and the Digital Networks Act, the brainchild of former tech commissioner Thierry Breton, as solutions to catch up. 

“An act is not the answer to everything,” Virkkunen acknowledged. But still, the EU’s industrial policies and legislative efforts to speed up investment and innovation are at the heart of her plans.

The Finnish nominee was otherwise shy on the details of her future proposals: She stuck to the broad objectives that von der Leyen laid out in her official letter inviting Virkkunen to take the job.

There is one sector in which the EU has a clear shot at global leadership, though, Virkkunen said: “Quantum is a technology of the future where Europe has many reasons for optimism.” She pledged to present a new strategy to boost the technology and hinted at a full-blown “Quantum Act.”

3. On AI, the focus has shifted

The EU adopted its AI act, the world’s first-ever binding AI rulebook, during the first von der Leyen Commission. In the coming five years, the focus is on speeding up the sector instead of regulating it, Virkkunen said.

“I want Europe to become an AI continent, the best place in the world to develop trustworthy [AI],” she said in her opening remarks. The AI Act should be an “enabler” of the technology, she added.

This echoes the plans of the Commission president, who shifted her tone from regulating the risks of AI to helping its rollout already at the start of this year. 

Virkkunen repeatedly showed she’s willing to foster innovation. On a question about AI uptake in the public sector, she said Europe should be “without fear” in adopting it and singled out major sectors like cars and pharma as ripe to embrace opportunities. 

4. The wide span of her portfolio is a problem

Virkkunen’s mega portfolio might not be the way to make Europe great again.

From her opening statement alone, it was clear what Virkkunen’s challenge will be: to balance her time and attention between the plethora of policy priorities that fall within her broad portfolio.

The Finnish nominee would oversee not just Europe’s powerful tech regulations but also its defense and security plans and protections for democracies in Europe.

Throughout her remarks to lawmakers Tuesday, she had to rush through items on technology, cybersecurity, media, culture, defense and broader EU themes such as preparedness and competitiveness.

The danger is that she’ll struggle to treat with care the long list of policy initiatives that von der Leyen has put on her plate. That’s part of a “divide and conquer” strategy at the heart of the new Commission structure that we wrote about over the summer — and could mean the president herself takes hold of the really hot items on that list.

5. Don’t worry, Ursula. She’ll walk the line

Virkkunen’s predecessor on the job — French former business exec and “Plan B commissioner” Thierry Breton — occasionally drove tech companies and even his own services crazy with “surprises” ranging from pre-empting EU procedures with announcements to outright offending fellow commissioners. 

The hearing made clear that likely won’t happen with Virkkunen at the wheel. 

She didn’t blink. She stayed on script. She spoke in general terms about “proceedings” like those under tech laws such as the DSA. She hardly went beyond what observers had read in her preparatory documents before the hearing or what her boss, von der Leyen, had said previously.

Von der Leyen has little to worry about: her Finnish tech and security czar — a horse aficionado, just like the Commission president herself — will walk the line. 

Revisit Virkkunen’s full European Parliament confirmation hearing as it happened in our liveblog.