We are proud that two recent European Commission / DGNECT studies expert consultations have included and recognised contributions from our Founding director, Prof. Markus Krebsz, creator of the Enterprise-wide AI Risk Management® (EW-AiRM®) ewairm.com framework and UNECE: Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) AI Project Lead.
Published on 23 June 2026, these landmark studies take a hard look at Europe's digital transformation ahead of the next Multi-annual Financial Framework (2028-2034), and they both do not pull their punches.
Findings included:
▪️ Over 20,000 advanced digital start-ups in the EU in 2025, yet only a small share have scaled. Innovation is not the problem; growth-stage development is.
▪️ AI, data analytics, cybersecurity and cloud are gaining ground, but deployment remains uneven, held back by underinvestment, skills shortages, legacy IT and market fragmentation.
▪️ Continued dependence on non-EU providers for cloud, semiconductors and AI infrastructure creates strategic vulnerabilities.
▪️ Europe's genuine strengths: trusted regulation, data protection, interoperability, open source and green digital solutions.
At the The Human Ai Institute®, we have long argued that trustworthy governance is not a brake on deployment. It is what makes deployment sustainable at scale, ultimately ensuring going concern (a.k.a. survival).
That starts at individual level, extends to organisations (whether private, public, academic or multilateral) and then also governments.
These studies reached similar conclusions: Europe's trusted regulatory framework is an asset to build on, not a burden to apologise for.
Looking ahead:
The studies will now inform the Commission's preparation of the next EU funding programme. If insights are carried through, the 2028-2034 programming period could do what the reports set out to enable: accelerate the deployment of critical digital technologies, strengthen Europe's strategic autonomy, and convert a world-class start-up base into world-class scale, with trust and human-centred governance built in from the start, and not as an afterthought.
📖 Full study and annexes (including Annex 4 on Artificial Intelligence) are available here:
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/boosting-tech-deployment-beyond-2027-new-study-highlights-digital-opportunities-and-challenges-eu