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Forty-one centre-left MEPs are raising concerns over a potential conflict of interest in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s choice for the EU’s first special envoy for industrial AI.
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At the end of May, Euronews revealed that the Commission chief was considering creating a new high-level post for AI to drive EU industrial policy in this area, though full details on the role remained a work in progress.
Last week the Commission confirmed that Jim Hagemann Snabe, a Danish businessman and chairman of German industrial giant Siemens, had been appointed to advise the EU executive on how to accelerate the uptake of AI across industrial sectors.
The appointment has drawn sharp reactions from progressive MEPs because Snabe holds a senior role in a major corporation from von der Leyen’s home country, prompting lawmakers to question the Commission president’s pick.
“Will the Commission publish the mandate, selection procedure, declaration of interests, and full conflict of interest assessment for this appointment?” reads a priority question led by MEP Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy) and co-signed by 40 other lawmakers.
“What safeguards, recusals and transparency obligations will prevent privileged access and undue influence by one industrial actor over EU AI policy?” the question continues.
The MEPs point to the Commission’s internal rules requiring that special advisers avoid conflicts of interest, and note that while the EU executive has said safeguards are in place, it has not specified what they are.
“The interests of one incumbent company cannot be equated with the interests of Europe’s diverse industrial ecosystem, including SMEs, start-ups, workers, consumers, and independent experts,” the MEPs added.
The Commission has specified that the AI envoy role is unpaid and runs until 31 March 2027, and that Snabe has agreed to suspend his membership of the advisory boards of Google Cloud and C3.ai, an enterprise AI company, while he takes up the position.
The Commission does not consider his current role at Siemens to constitute a conflict of interest, despite some lawmakers saying that the German company sought to weaken the EU AI Act during the legislative process.
“The Commission is fully behind the AI Act,” said Thomas Regnier, the Commission’s spokesperson for digital policy. “The special adviser that was appointed is there for the other side. The regulation always goes with innovation.”
This is not the first time von der Leyen’s chosen candidate for a high-level envoy post has drawn criticism. In 2024, she caused a stir when she appointed Markus Pieper, an MEP from her own party, to the highly paid post of SME representative. Following the backlash, von der Leyen was forced to withdraw the appointment.
She is also not the only president to face such criticism. In 2015, the EU Ombudsman found that the commission had failed to address conflict of interest concerns in the appointment of Edmund Stoiber, another German politician, as a special adviser to then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
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