19
May
2026
Watch
EU cybersecurity and preparedness in view of advanced AI systems (debate)
Madam President, Madam Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the biggest challenge facing the European Union today is how to adapt our societies to artificial intelligence, how to have artificial intelligence at the service of our democracies, how to reduce our external dependencies and how to bet on a European digital industrial strategy. This implies – from my point of view and from the point of view of S&D – action, vision and strategy. Action, vision and strategy because we are talking about economic security, digital defence, technological sovereignty in the European Union. Artificial intelligence and threats are profoundly transforming our societies, security, the economy, the functioning of our democracies. And the attacks are no longer only on critical infrastructure, they are also, but they are on our electoral systems, on the European public space, and – in my view – this creates a distrust of the institutions, which is, moreover, the aim of those who promote these attacks. That is why we need to make artificial intelligence a partner of our development and our democracy, because European cybersecurity is a matter of democracy, security, data protection, but it is also a matter of competitiveness. That is why this strategy needs to invest in European capabilities of its own, in cybersecurity, trustworthy artificial intelligence, semiconductors, high-performance computing. cloud European and critical infrastructure protection, absolutely essential to protect consumers, to protect our economy, to protect our democracies. And I come back to this point: Digital sovereignty means a European digital industrial strategy combining regulation, risk management, protection of fundamental rights, strengthening cyber resilience and institutional coordination. What we are talking about, ladies and gentlemen, is really about valuing our democracy and defending digital strategic autonomy in the European area.