What lawmakers should ask the EU’s new tech boss

BRUSSELS — Henna Virkkunen is set to take over a hefty role as the European Union’s tech chief if she can weather the heat from European lawmakers this week.

She’ll have to enforce rules to crack down on some of the world’s biggest firms and curb digital threats such as disinformation and cyberattacks. She’ll also need to show that she’s got solutions to help Europe catch up in the global AI race and handle its heavy reliance on the U.S. and China for critical technology, such as microchips and cloud services.

The reelection of Donald Trump as president of the United States has sparked new calls for Europe to become more self-reliant.

Virkkunen, a longtime Finnish European Parliament lawmaker, will have to handle it all as executive Vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

The Finnish horse enthusiast has a wide role, which couples tech enforcement with oversight of border security and the competitiveness of Europe’s defense industry.

Virkkunen is a digital legislation veteran from her time as an EU lawmaker, which shields her from criticism that she’s new to the beat. But she’ll need to show that tech enforcement won’t take a backseat to her other responsibilities.

We have some suggestions for what lawmakers should ask based on our reporting and input from tech trade associations and civil society groups.

Explain the ‘tech sovereignty’ bit in your job title

Tech sovereignty, strategic autonomy, economic security …

These terms are vague and swirl around an increasingly complicated geopolitical situation. Europe relies heavily on other regions, such as the U.S. for key technologies and services and China, for critical inputs and manufacturing.

That can become a security problem when these regions weaponize their supply chains, such as when the U.S. pressured the Netherlands to block Dutch chip tool supplier ASML from selling some high-end machines to China.

Trump’s reelection makes it all the more likely that high-tech supply chains could be disrupted.

— Q: What’s technological sovereignty, how would you define it and which concrete steps would you take to achieve it?

— Q: The European Commission presented its economic security package in the last mandate and started to assess the risks of four critical technologies: artificial intelligence, quantum, biotech and advanced microchips. Which do you see as posing the biggest security risk? How would you mitigate that risk?

Another line of questioning could be whether the Commission practices what it preaches: Is it “technologically sovereign”?

— Q: The Commission recently rolled out an internal generative AI tool to help staffers draft proposals. Users could choose their preferred AI model, with several models developed by U.S.-based companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic. Several EU-funded supercomputers also run on chips from U.S.-based Nvidia. Would you say that’s “tech sovereignty”?

Virkkunen comes from Finland, a country that still has work to do to decrease its reliance on Chinese telecoms network vendors such as Huawei and ZTE to mitigate cyber espionage.

— Q: What’s your plan to ensure EU governments fulfill their commitments to rely less on Chinese technology?

— Q: Finnish network provider Nokia could profit from less reliance on Chinese vendors. POLITICO reported that you met with Nokia Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark at the end of August. What was discussed?

How can Europe catch up in the global AI race?

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has made fixing Europe’s waning competitiveness a top priority for her next term.

AI features heavily in her program as a quick fix to boost the economy. But Europe struggles to keep up in the global AI race, which is currently dominated by U.S.-based companies such as ChatGPT developer OpenAI.

— Q: Tech companies, including European ones, have claimed that the EU’s patchwork of regulation, including the bloc’s data protection rules and the Artificial Intelligence Act, is impeding them from grasping the full potential of AI. Do you agree? How do you see the balance between regulation and innovation?

— Q: Only 8 percent of European companies currently use AI, according to a report published in July. How do you want to reach the target of 75 percent by 2030?

— Q: President von der Leyen instructed you to develop a “Cloud and AI development plan” to boost computing power and data storage to foster AI uptake. In your written answers, you said that such a plan should “replicate[s] the ambition of the EU Chips Act” (the bloc’s €43 billion chipmaking plan).

However, that plan has partly imploded after several chipmakers, including Intel, paused or shelved investments. Can you explain why you compared the two plans? What would you do differently compared to the chipmaking plan? And can you get the chipmaking plan itself back on track?

How will you push a platform like X to police illegal content?

Virkkunen is set to oversee the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires tech platforms to clamp down on illegal content. That job became trickier last Tuesday when Trump was reelected with the support of X owner Elon Musk, praising the tech tycoon as a genius he aimed to protect.

X is currently in the EU’s firing line for falling short of some of its DSA obligations. An EU move against Musk could trigger retaliation from the incoming U.S. administration.

— Q: In your written answers, you promised “rigorous” enforcement of the DSA. Can you uphold that when U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to retaliate against a fine for X? How would you deal with a transatlantic diplomatic spat?

— Q: You will oversee DG CONNECT, the Commission’s tech department enforcing the DSA. That’s only a tiny part of your extensive portfolio, though. How will you prevent these digital files from taking a backseat?

In the lead-up to this hearing, POLITICO reported that Virkkunen met frequently with U.S. Big Tech companies as a European lawmaker. Digital campaigner Ella Jakubowska of EDRi, said this is a concern and that Virkkunen’s “record does appear to disproportionally prioritize meetings with industry.”

— Q: As a European lawmaker, you logged dozens of meetings with Big Tech companies. Civil society groups have expressed concerns that you would be tilted towards the industry’s interests. Is that a valid criticism? How will you ensure all sides feel represented when enforcing the tech rulebooks?

What’s with the horses?

If lawmakers are still looking for a question on the lighter side, we have one: Henna Virkkunen is a horse fanatic.

She regularly posts pictures of her horseriding on Instagram; she’s also an advocate for her equine pals as chair of the Association of Finnish Horse Owners (per her own Parliament declaration).

— Q: What’s so wonderful about horseriding?

— Q: Did you bond with von der Leyen over your shared love of horses?

And with that, we’ll end this mandate’s hearing madness, with Virkkunen one of the last to be quizzed before the new crew can be formally voted in to start work next month.

Mathieu Pollet contributed reporting.