As the clock ticks down on the AI Act, calls are growing to pause and rethink its direction. While there is growing momentum behind these calls, any delay must be strategic – not an excuse for inaction. Because let’s be clear: a pause alone achieves little.
In Brussels, it is easy to dismiss any request for improvement as Big Tech lobbying. For good reason, they lobby a lot. But let’s remember that it is our own European AI builders and developers – especially startups – who are most exposed to legal uncertainty. If we care about digital sovereignty, we need to listen to our own ecosystem, not the simplistic Silicon Valley messaging we hear everyday.
If there is a pause, it should be to realign the AI Act with Europe’s strategic goals: competitiveness, sovereignty, and legal clarity. The objective must be to clearly empower European innovators and not create frameworks only Big Tech can navigate.
Europe cannot afford to be the continent where AI is invented but scaled elsewhere. Our rules must enable innovation – not entangle it. A smart pause would allow us to integrate the AI Act into the upcoming Digital Simplification Omnibus. It’s a chance to streamline compliance for startups, clarify high-risk obligations, better define responsibilities across the value chain, and specify what things like “AI literacy” should actually mean in practice.
We also need to address the AI Code of Practice. If it is truly meant as a voluntary tool pending standardisation, then the Commission should remove the provisions that exceed what the AI Act allows. It is surprising, and frankly concerning, that this continues unchecked within the Commission amid a simplification agenda.
Crucially, a pause gives the time to finalise the technical standards that will make or break implementation and compliance. This part should not be controversial.
But let’s be honest – this cannot be an open-ended delay. Europe’s innovators and investors need certainty. The longer the uncertainty, the higher the cost. The reset must be short and strategic – not a standstill. The AI Act can still succeed if we take the time to get it right.
