The EU does not view the activities of the newly appointed special envoy for AI at Siemens as a problem

Brussels – “He will suspend his membership of certain boards of directors.” And that is all. This is the European Commission’s response regarding the newly appointed Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence, Jim Hagemann Snabe, and his role as Chairman of Siemens, which he will therefore not be required to step down from. A situation which, in the view of the EU executive, does not give rise to conflicts of interest, and which is resolved by limiting the number of board meetings he attends. 

“When we appoint an envoy or a special adviser, we have a duty to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest between the professional activities they carry out outside and within the Commission,” clarified the Commission spokesperson, Balazs Ujvari, during today’s (5 June) daily press briefing, suggesting that as the appointment had been approved, there were no risks to the impartiality of the role and the work.  

Two days ago, Snabe was appointed Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence, a role designed to advise the Commission on issues related to robotics and new technologies in order to maximise the transformative potential of AI across the EU.

Since 2018, however, Snabe has also been chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG, a company that is said to have lobbied the EU to avoid overly strict regulation of artificial intelligence. Ujvari promised that “very solid, robust, and targeted safeguards” would be put in place to “ensure there is no conflict of interest” in relation to what he described as an “unfortunate situation”. The European Commission spokesperson did not provide further details, citing “data protection reasons.” 

Some journalists then pointed out to the spokesperson that the MEP Dario Nardella (S&D), who is also the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Artificial Intelligence Act, had denounced lobbying activities by Siemens against the legislative measure. In response to these allegations, the Commission merely stated that “by now the law is in force and the special adviser will not be involved in legislative or regulatory aspects, but only in innovation.”