The AI continent action plan: Europe’s roadmap to trustworthy
artificial intelligence
In April 2025, the European Commission presented the AI Continent
Action Plan
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ai-continent-action-plan],
setting out a clear course for strengthening Europe’s position in
the global development and use of artificial intelligence (AI). The
plan responds to the rapid acceleration of AI worldwide and the need
for Europe to move faster in adopting these technologies across its
economy and public sector. While AI is already being used in areas
such as healthcare, energy, and mobility, adoption within the EU
remains uneven, especially among small organisations and public
administrations. 

Rather than introducing new legislation, the AI Continent Action Plan
brings together concrete policy actions and investments to support the
next phase of AI development. It focuses on five key areas: scaling up
computing infrastructure through AI factories and future AI
gigafactories, improving access to high‑quality data, accelerating
AI uptake in strategic sectors, strengthening skills and talent, and
supporting the practical implementation of the AI Act
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng]. Together, these
measures aim to support AI development across its full lifecycle, from
research and training to deployment in real‑world settings. 

Access to data is a central pillar of the plan. Developing and
validating AI systems requires datasets such as language resources
[https://data.europa.eu/data/combined?query=language%20resources&locale=en],
benchmarking
[https://data.europa.eu/data/combined?query=benchmarking+&locale=en&page=1]
datasets, and administrative data from public services
[https://data.europa.eu/data/combined?query=administrative+data+public+services&locale=en&page=1].
Through initiatives like the upcoming Data Union Strategy
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-union] and
Data Labs connected to AI factories
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/ai-factories], the
EU aims to make such data easier to access, combine, and reuse across
borders. Platforms like the European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/en] contribute by improving access to open
public sector data, supporting transparent and accountable AI
development. 

Published as part of the EU’s broader digital strategy, the AI
continent action plan outlines a long‑term vision in which Europe
moves from experimentation to large‑scale, trustworthy AI adoption.
Explore the full plan on the European Commission’s website
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ai-continent-action-plan]
and discover how open and reusable data on the European Data Portal
[https://data.europa.eu/en] supports Europe’s path towards becoming
a leading AI continent. 

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Publication Date/Time
2026-05-01T08:00:00+00:00
How the European Union aims to strengthen innovation, competitiveness,
and democratic values through human‑centric AI