Emmanuel Macron hosts AI summit, while EU braces for Trump tariffs – Europe live

Imagine you are a European leader. On your to-do list for this week, you have (at least) three issues:. How to navigate an almost existential discussion on how to deal with the rapid expansion of AI. How to avoid the looming threat of global trade wars. How to influence US plans to hold secret negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. No pressure. First, we are in Paris for Emmanuel Macron’s AI Action Summit.

What is at stake during the two-day meeting, starting today, is probably best captured on the front page of the French daily Libération this morning, with Emmanuel Macron desperately trying to catch up with the US and Chinese robots. Speaking to the CNN last week, Macron said that Europe was “not in the race today,” and warned it was seriously “lagging behind” competitors. So the Paris summit will be an opportunity for him to show France and Europe are serious about joining the AI race, and to have discussions with investors and global leaders about what’s next for the rapidly emerging technology. With the EU’s AI Act now in implementation, lots of questions still remain about the bloc’s approach to the technology’s development and regulation.

In total, Macron and his co-host Indian prime minister Narenda Modi will welcome about 80 leaders, including US vice-president JD Vance (in his first trip to Europe since inauguration), Chinese vice premier Zhang Gouqing as well as top execs such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai. On Sunday, Macron announced €109bn of investment in AI in France in the coming years, expected to come from the United Arab Emirates, US and Canadian investment funds, and French companies. He said it was “the equivalent for France of what the US has announced with Stargate,” the $500-billion US scheme led by ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Only last week, France’s Mistral AI also launched its AI assistant Le Chat – you can see the nod to its French roots there – which now tops the list of most popular apps in Europe. Over the weekend, the president was keen to present himself as a fan of AI posting a video in which he appears, through the magic of deepfake technologies as a singer, an actor, a rapper and others. “It’s pretty well done, it made me laugh,” he said.

Bien joué… pic.twitter.com/zthA2zIBja. But it’s definitely not all laughs in Europe. Last night, US president Donald Trump once again raised the prospect of imposing tariffs on all aluminium and steel imports, which would also hit the European Union. EU leaders will be frantically making calls this morning to figure out what it all means for them and how, and when, to respond. Trump’s No.2 JD Vance will be in Europe most of this week, first attending the Paris summit, and later taking part in the Munich Security Conference in Germany, meaning there will be some scope for informal discussions behind the scenes.

But with their focus on putting America First, how much will Trump and Vance be willing to cut deals with the EU as they focus on their main aims of radically reshaping global trade and trying to bring to an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine?. It’s going to be lively. Buckle up. It’s Monday, 10 February 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here. Good morning. German chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke about the threat of US tariffs during last night’s televised debate with his main rival Friedrich Merz ahead of the federal election on 23 February.

He said the EU was “prepared” to respond and “ready to act within one hour,” but insisted that any reaction needs to be at the EU level, noting Germany’s particular vulnerability to any US tariffs. This is what he said in full:. We’re prepared, obviously, with all diplomatic caution, but we’re ready to act within one hour as the European Union. It’s important to say that our trade policy is an EU competence, and it’s one of the reasons why we should insist that we stick to these common rules with the EU.

If the US have tariff policy, then there’s going to be one export nation that is very much going to suffer from that, and that is Germany. This is why we have to ensure that there is solidarity with tariff policy,. Looking at other EU responses, French president Emmanuel Macron also hit at Trump’s plans to impose tariffs against the EU. Speaking in English to CNN, he said:. Is the European Union your first problem? No, I don’t think so. Your first problem is China, so you should focus on the first problem.

Europe is an ally for you. If you want Europe to be engaged on more investment, security, defence, if you want Europe to develop, which I think is in the interest of the US, you should not hurt European economies by threatening them with tariffs. France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot went further this morning, saying directly that the EU would counter in kind and retaliate against any tariffs imposed by the US.