2 weeks Ago By Arj Singh
The European Parliament’s Brexit reset lead has warned Sir Keir Starmer not to align with Donald Trump on artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, amid warnings that a UK-US trade deal could harm Britain’s renewed ties with the EU.Sandro Gozi told The i Paper that failing to agree a common UK-EU approach on AI would be a “missed opportunity”.The senior MEP, who chairs the European delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly, said a “common approach” on the policy is “more important” in the long term than the security and defence pact under discussion as part of the Brexit reset.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }It comes after The i Paper this week revealed that EU officials are in “constant contact” with their British counterparts to warn of the “limits” a UK-US trade deal may place on the Prime Minister’s bid to forge closer ties with Brussels.Starmer has been warned that he may struggle to keep his promise not to choose between the EU and the United States.AI is a central plank of Starmer’s proposed economic deal with Trump.
The UK is believed to be offering to align with America’s lighter-touch approach to regulating this and other technologies in the hope of securing an agreement which reduces American tariffs on British cars, metals and pharmaceuticals. Sandro Gozi is the Brexit lead for the European Parliament (Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu)Starmer has already joined the US in refusing to sign the Paris AI summit declaration, delayed new laws to regulate the technology and announced plans to change the name of the UK’s AI Safety Institute to focus more on security. US Vice-President JD Vance had criticised “hand-wringing about safety”.
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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }Gozi, an ally of French President Emmanuel Macron, has proposed a UK-EU AI deal to form part of Starmer’s reset of relations with Brussels, which is currently focused on a defence deal, boosting trade ties and the easier movement of people between the UK and Europe.He argued that it is in the “common interest” of the two sides to agree “common principles” and “possible common standards we want to see worldwide”.Gozi said he held talks with Trump’s adviser on AI in the White House as well as in US Congress, which made clear to him that America is against any regulation of the technology.
He said: “They think that any principles, any common standard, any common approach to AI, could be an obstacle in their race against China.“So I don’t know what the UK wants, if the UK wants to go towards far-west AI Trump-style, or globalwide where we want to set some principles which of course do not pre-empt innovation but they start to organise AI around some common standards.”He went on: “If the UK thinks any common principle, common approach is absolutely to avoid, like Trump, good luck.
“But I don’t think it’s the right approach.”if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }Asked if that could damage the goodwill the Starmer Government has built up with the EU, Gozi replied: “Damage I would say, we go too far.“But it is certainly an obvious opportunity to enhance our partnership.
“We talk about defence and security, of course, but this is as important, even more important in the long term.“So certainly it would be a missed opportunity if they go along the Trump road, which is no principles at all on AI, far-west.”Anand Menon, director of the UK In A Changing Europe think-tank, said: “The Prime Minister insists he will not choose between Europe and the United States.
“Pressure from the US to align with American rather than European standards may make that promise hard to keep.”.
