European Union

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), led by Chair David McAllister, travelled to Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia from 21 to 24 July 2025. This was the Committee's first official visit to the United States following last year’s elections on both sides of the Atlantic.
During the trip, Members discussed how to deepen transatlantic ties, enhance collective security, reinforce the shared commitment to supporting Ukraine, and tackle common challenges such as China's expanding global influence and the situation in the Middle East. Insights gathered from the visit will inform the Committee's ongoing work on the own initiative report on EU-US political relations.
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Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Photo courtesy of the Centre for Future Generations: https://cfg.eu/building-cern-for-ai/

Anna-Lena Rüland

For several research fields, large-scale research infrastructures play a crucial role in advancing cutting-edge research, with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) often being referred to as a particularly successful example. Accounts of how “big science” projects like CERN get off the ground abound in the history of science as well as in popular science. Typically, individual scientists are seen to be pivotal in initiating large-scale research infrastructures (just think of the role of Isidor I. Rabi in the early phase of CERN). However, the specific strategies and tactics that scientists use to put a large-scale research infrastructure on the agenda of policymakers are rarely examined through a theoretical lens, impeding a more systematic understanding of what strategies and tactics may or may not work in advocating for big science. In my recently published article, I address this issue by drawing on the interest group and agenda-setting scholarship to study the strategies and tactics that the Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research in Europe (CAIRNE) has used to advocate for the so-called CERN for AI. In this blog post, I reflect on which strategies and tactics have proven successful and which have not.[i]

 

What is CERN for AI?

There are multiple, and in part clashing, visions of CERN for AI (this blog post provides a detailed overview). I will focus on the vision of CAIRNE, possibly one of the fiercest advocates for a CERN for AI. CAIRNE promotes a CERN for AI that:

• Consists of a central hub, supported by a network of (CAIRNE) research clusters;
• Is used to conduct research on all aspects of AI;
• Has close links to industry;
• Develops AI that aligns with European norms and values; and
• Is publicly funded.

CAIRNE started to advocate for CERN for AI in 2017, based on two central arguments. First, the organization considers it vital to bring Europe’s top AI researchers together in a central place to coordinate their research efforts and to agree on a few top research priorities for the field. According to CAIRNE, this is needed to help the European AI community overcome its fragmentation. Second, CAIRNE argues that more hardware is needed to enable cutting-edge AI research in Europe and to catch up with AI frontrunners like the US and China. When CAIRNE was founded in 2018, CERN for AI became one of the central issues that the organization advocated for. However, despite CAIRNE’s continuous advocacy, CERN for AI has not (yet) materialized. This may soon change, as the initiative has made it to the highest political level: Ursula von der Leyen recently proposed to set up a “European AI Research Council where we can pool all of our resources, similar to the approach taken with CERN.”

 

Invest in a variety of strategies

Between 2017 and 2025, CAIRNE used different means to draw policymakers’ and the broader public’s attention to CERN for AI, three of which proved particularly useful. First, CAIRNE engaged with different members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to convince them of CERN for AI’s merit. This parliamentary strategy has paid off, as several MEPs have begun to back CERN for AI during the deliberations for the AI Act. Second, CAIRNE’s founding members invested a great deal of time and effort into promoting CERN for AI by writing countless opinion pieces and giving interviews for prominent media outlets across the EU. For example, their proposal featured in “der Tagesspiegel,” and “Science Business.” This media strategy drew attention to CERN for AI beyond a specialist audience. Finally, and in line with a mobilization strategy, CAIRNE drew attention to CERN for AI among the AI community, think tanks and the broader public by organizing CERN for AI-dedicated events and publishing open letters. Across all these strategies, CAIRNE credibly presented CERN for AI as an issue that needs to be addressed at the EU-level: Firstly, because the funding needed for CERN for AI would likely exceed the capacities of any one EU Member State and, secondly, because the entire European AI research community should benefit from and participate in CERN for AI.

 

Find the right label

A CAIRNE strategy that created controversy, especially within the European AI community, was the framing of the proposed AI research infrastructure as a CERN for AI. Several people that I interviewed for my article argued that, in principle, it is beneficial to use the renowned CERN “brand” to promote a large-scale, European (AI) research infrastructure. Yet, in the case of the CERN for AI initiative, this strategy backfired. There are two reasons for this. First, at about the same time as CAIRNE started to promote CERN for AI, a group of prominent AI researchers that is now known as “ELLIS” advocated for a networked AI research infrastructure modeled on the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Given the EU’s limited funding for AI and the enormous price tag of any AI research infrastructure, ELLIS had no interest in supporting CAIRNE’s proposal. Second, critics of CERN for AI, among them ELLIS members, argued that the CERN label did not make sense in the context of AI because, unlike to the massive colliders at CERN, the computing power necessary for AI research does not need to be centralized. (Somewhat ironically, while criticizing CAIRNE’s framing, ELLIS failed to acknowledge that back in the day, the EMBL was promoted as a Conseil Européen de la Recherche Biologique). Critics of CERN for AI have further argued that using the CERN label for a large-scale AI research infrastructure is “misleading” because the current political circumstances are not comparable to those that eventually facilitated the establishment of CERN.

 

Balance centralization with decentralization

In the future, scientists and scientific organizations like CAIRNE may therefore want to frame their proposals for large-scale science infrastructures more strategically. Historical research has shown that promoting a “big science” project as a CERN of [insert relevant scientific discipline] does not necessarily have to backfire. What seems to play an important role is that those advocating for a large-scale science project in a research field that does not strictly require big instruments choose a framing that manages to balance the best of both worlds: the unifying moment of centralization and the efficiency of decentralization. Such a framing is also likely to more strongly appeal to policymakers and thus find political backing because a central research facility supported by a network of research clusters would maximize the number of constituencies that see a return on investment from big science.

 

Dr. Anna-Lena Rüland is a research fellow with the European Research Council-funded project “Addressing Global Challenges through International Scientific Consortia” at the University College London Global Business School for Health. She graduated with a PhD in science policy from Leiden University in July 2024 and currently conducts research on science diplomacy, research security, as well as science, technology and innovation policy.

 

This blog post is based on her article that won the 2024 Award for Excellent Paper from an Emerging Scholar from the ECPR Standing Group ‘Knowledge Politics and Policies’. This was the eighth time this prize was awarded. Previous winners are Cecilia Ivardi and Linda Wanklin, Anke Reinhardt, Adrienn Nyircsák, Alexander Mitterle, Justyna Bandola-Gill, Emma Sabzalieva, Olivier Provini and Que Anh Dang.

 

References

Cassata, Francesco. 2024. A ‘Heavy Hammer to Crack a Small Nut’? The Creation of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), 1963–1970. Annals of Science: 1-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2351511.

Hoos, Holger. 2023. ‘AI made in Europe’ am Wendepunkt. Der Tagesspiegel, 7 July 2023.

Kelly, Éanna. 2021. Call for a ‘CERN for AI’ as Parliament Hears Warnings on Risk of Killing the Sector with Over-Regulation. Science Business, 25 March 2021.

Kohler, Kevin. 2024. CERN for AI: An Overview. https://machinocene.substack.com/p/cern-for-ai-an-overview. Accessed 13 February 2025.

Matthews, David. 2024. Call for the EU to Build Publicly Funded Cutting-Edge Artificial Intelligence. Science Business, 4 January 2024.

Rüland, Anna-Lena. 2025. “We Need a CERN for AI”: Organized Scientific Interests and Agenda-Setting in European Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. Minerva Online first. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-024-09568-6

Wulff Wold, Jacob. 2024. Von der Leyen Gives Nod to €100 Billion CERN for AI Proposal. Euroactiv, 25 July 2024.

 

[i] A slightly different version of this blog post has previously been published for the European Union Science Diplomacy Alliance Newsletter: https://www.science-diplomacy.eu/news/.

The post How (not) to lobby for large-scale research infrastructure: Lessons learned from the CERN for AI appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Voyage à reculons dans les Balkans occidentaux, Carnet de voyage, d'Ombeline Duprat, éditions Spinelle, 2025, 170 pages, 18 euros.

- Lettres de l'Est et des Balkans • Le blog de Pierre Glachant / Kosovo, Grand Bazar - Diaporama, Serbie, Bosnie-Herzégovine

Royal Football Club Seraing
Football: the Court affirms the right, for clubs and players in particular, to obtain effective judicial review of arbitral awards made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport

Alace
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
International protection: the designation of a third country as a ‘safe country of origin’ must be amenable to effective judicial review

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Principles of Community law
Right to asylum: A Member State may not plead an unforeseeable influx of applicants for international protection in order to evade its obligation to cover asylum seekers’ basic needs

BAJI Trans
The principle of lex posterior mitius extends to a penalty classified as administrative under national law where it is of a criminal nature for the purposes of EU law

Volkswagen
Approximation of laws
A vehicle manufacturer cannot be exempted from its liability for an unlawful defeat device on the grounds that an EC type-approval has been granted

France v CWS Powder Coatings and Others
Approximation of laws
The Court of Justice upholds the annulment of the classification of titanium dioxide in certain powder forms as a carcinogenic substance

Banca Mediolanum
Taxation
Taxation: national legislation providing for tax being levied on more than 5% of the amount of the dividends that financial intermediaries receive, as parent companies, from their subsidiaries resident in other Member States is contrary to EU law

Veracash
Free movement of capital
Payment services: the payment card user is deprived of the right to obtain a refund of an unauthorised payment transaction of which he or she has become aware if he or she delayed in notifying it to his or her provider with intent or gross negligence

Daka
Independence of judges: the double appointment of judges to the Polish Supreme Court is compatible with EU law

Adrar
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Advocate General Spielmann: the court reviewing the lawfulness of the detention of an illegally staying third-country national must verify that the principle of non-refoulement does not preclude his or her removal

A delegation of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), led by Chair David McAllister, travelled to Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia from 21 to 24 July 2025. This was the Committee's first official visit to the United States following last year's elections on both sides of the Atlantic.
During the trip, Members discussed how to deepen transatlantic ties, enhance collective security, reinforce the shared commitment to supporting Ukraine, and tackle common challenges such as China's expanding global influence and the situation in the Middle East. Insights gathered from the visit will inform the Committee's ongoing work on the own initiative report on EU-US political relations.
Location : USA
Press Announcement
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Au cœur du parc national de la Sutjeska, en Bosnie-Herzégovine, le festival Jelen OK Fest a réuni des milliers de festivaliers venus des Balkans, entre nature spectaculaire, musique éclectique et engagement. Trois jours de fête et de réflexion dans un lieu marqué par la geste des partisans de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

- Articles / Courrier des Balkans, Tourisme balkans, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Culture et éducation

OPINION on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directives 2006/43/EC, 2013/34/EU, (EU) 2022/2464 and (EU) 2024/1760 as regards certain corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence requirements
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Barry Andrews

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The next meeting of the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Monday, 1 September 2025 from 15.00-18.30 in Brussels (room ANTALL 4Q1).

Further information about the SEDE meeting can be found here.

_______________________

SEDE missions 2025:

• Norway - 27-30 May 2025
• Moldova and Ukraine - 14-17 April 2025
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 24-27 February 2025
• Israel and Palestine - 5-8 February 2025

SEDE missions 2024:

• United Kingdom - 28-30 October 2024
• Ukraine - 25-26 October 2024

SEDE Committee meetings' calendar 2025
EP calendar 2025
SEDE meetings' calendar 2nd half of 2024 - 10th legislature
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Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Delegations

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A parliamentary delegation will be in Taipei from 21 to 23 July to meet with Taiwanese authorities and civil society representatives.
Special committee on the European Democracy Shield

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP