November Newsletter
Welcome back to the CODE Newsletter. This edition follows Brussels as it cuts red tape in digital regulation, recasting the EU’s famed rule-making machinery as a tool for speed, scale and competitiveness.
Plus, as the year begins to wind down, a few reading and listening picks to end it well.
When the Sketchpad Starts to Move
In the CODE newsletter last April, I wrote that Brussels’ approach to technology governance was shifting from rigid regulation to a kind of sketchpad: a system redrawn in real time to keep pace with global competition. Seven months on, that sketch is starting to take shape. The European Union is now turning its talk of simplification and regulatory easing into action, loosening parts of its digital rulebook while reaffirming its commitment to competitiveness and transatlantic alignment. The European Commission is preparing to soften elements of its flagship technology legislation under a sweeping simplification agenda, amid pressure from U.S. tech giants and growing transatlantic trade friction.
According to draft proposals seen by the Financial Times, the Commission will unveil a “simplification package” next week on 19 November that pauses or delays several provisions of the Artificial Intelligence Act, which took effect in 2024. Companies deploying high-risk AI systems would gain a one-year grace period before penalties apply and fines for transparency breaches would be pushed back to 2027. Officials say the changes are meant to ease compliance costs and bring the rollout of the rules in line with Europe’s industrial goals, amid ongoing concerns that Europe continues to attract far less AI-infrastructure investment than the U.S., despite headline commitments from American tech companies.
The move comes amid a broader debate in Brussels over how far the bloc should go in enforcing its digital rulebook as lobbying from Big Tech and Washington intensifies, with tech companies now averaging more than one meeting a day with Commission officials, much of it focused on artificial intelligence. The Trump administration has long argued that Europe’s new digital laws—the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act and AI Act—unfairly target U.S. firms. Keen to avoid another round of tariffs or trade disputes, EU officials have stepped up outreach to the White House and Silicon Valley in recent months.
In May 2025, Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s top technology official, travelled to San Francisco and Washington D.C. to meet the heads of major tech firms, carrying a message that the EU was “putting in place policies to improve the business environment, notably by simplifying its digital rules,” as the AI Act would be “among the laws that will be amended and simplified.” Mission reports from the EU delegation later noted that Virkkunen was “praised” for an innovation-friendly agenda focused on cutting administrative burdens and advancing the AI Continent Action Plan, a €200 billion programme to accelerate AI infrastructure and innovation across Europe.
Virkkunen’s outreach formed part of a wider recalibration in Brussels, as the Commission under Ursula von der Leyen began aligning its digital and trade diplomacy more closely. The new tone marked a sharp departure from 2024, when Brussels cast itself as the world’s leading regulator of artificial intelligence. Now, simplification has become a diplomatic tool. As per Politico’s report, von der Leyen’s deregulatory drive is being sold as a “peace offering” to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened new tariffs unless the EU relaxes rules affecting American firms. Under a provisional trade deal reached in July at Trump’s Scottish resort, the EU pledged that its green and digital regulations would not pose undue restrictions on transatlantic trade. Soon after, nineteen EU leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, called for a systematic review of all EU regulations to cut red tape across the bloc.
At the same time, the pressure for regulatory easing is not coming only from abroad. European start-ups, SMEs and mid-caps have also struggled to navigate the complexity of the digital rulebook — concerns reflected in the Commission’s AI Apply consultations and a series of implementation dialogues held earlier this year. These domestic actors have repeatedly warned that high compliance costs and fragmented guidance risk slowing innovation and discouraging investment, giving Brussels a second incentive to simplify, which EU officials frame as making the AI Act “more operational,” alongside the geopolitical one. External pressure created the political urgency; domestic pressure shaped the Commission’s justification.
Inside Brussels, the simplification campaign has now been built into the Commission’s work programme. Virkkunen’s first Annual Progress Report to the Council and Parliament sets out plans to streamline enforcement of the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act and AI Act through a dedicated Digital Simplification Package, supported by new dialogues with industry and national authorities. Commissioners Maroš Šefčovič and Valdis Dombrovskis told the European Parliament on October 21 that simplification is a core competitiveness priority, citing €8.6 billion in administrative savings from existing omnibus measures and promising further proposals across the digital, defence and energy sectors. The effort also aligns with the wider economic agenda outlined in Mario Draghi’s 2024 competitiveness report and the Commission’s broader goal of cutting €37.5 billion in administrative costs across the single market by the end of its mandate.
Generated by ChatGPT (DALL·E)
The political response has been mixed. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has publicly endorsed the simplification drive, calling it essential for “more jobs, stability and security,” and urging lawmakers to fast-track competitiveness reforms. But inside Parliament, views remain divided. Several committees have pushed back against the Commission’s omnibus approach, warning that bundled simplification bills risk bypassing normal scrutiny. Lawmakers from the centre-right European People’s Party are pressing for deeper cuts to digital regulation, while socialists and greens caution that deregulation by stealth could weaken oversight of technology and data governance. Civil-society and digital rights organisations have voiced similar concerns, warning in an open letter that the digital omnibus risks bringing deregulation rather than simplification.
Across the EU’s executive and national capitals, leaders continue to tie the digital simplification agenda to wider economic reform. In its 23 October conclusions, the European Council urged the Commission to accelerate competitiveness-related files, including new packages on digitalisation and small-cap firms and to deliver a sovereign digital transition aimed at keeping Europe technologically independent while reducing administrative burdens.
While officials insist the upcoming 19 November simplification package will not erode fundamental protections, it nonetheless signals a decisive move toward an implementation-driven model—one intended to keep pace with industrial competition while preserving the legal spine of the EU’s digital rulebook. The shift also raises a deeper governance question: how far streamlining can go before it weakens the deliberation and accountability that once anchored Europe’s regulatory model.
This recalibration within Europe’s digital governance architecture points to the rise of a more technocratic mode of regulation. The shift is evident in the Commission’s own machinery: under Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, the EU is creating an AI Act Service Desk and broader simplification structures to help businesses navigate an increasingly complex digital rulebook. These mechanisms act less as traditional regulators and more as coordinators, translating dense legal frameworks into operational routines for companies and national authorities. In this architecture, regulation is not dismantled but tuned—adjusted through guidance notes, service desks and delegated oversight to keep the system responsive without reopening political battles over substance.
The trade-offs are visible. Simplification and regulatory easing accelerate implementation but also shift discretion from legislatures to the executive and from open deliberation to administrative interpretation—a dynamic illustrated by instruments such as the AI Act Service Desk, which centralises guidance while consolidating interpretive authority within the Commission. These changes may ease compliance for large platforms able to absorb regulatory risk while leaving smaller firms more dependent on Brussels for direction. Together, these procedural shifts show how regulatory agility has become Europe’s new competitive asset, even as it further blurs the line between rule-making and rule-running.
More broadly, the shift reflects a recognition that regulation itself has become a strategic instrument—a way to govern markets while negotiating power with partners and rivals. Simplification, in this sense, may redefine how Europe projects influence: less through exporting prescriptive rules and more through demonstrating that its governance model can adapt without losing coherence.
Whether this evolution reassures Silicon Valley, convinces EU lawmakers or preserves the Union’s reputation as a rule-setting power will become clearer once the Digital Simplification Package, revising key EU tech laws, is published later this month. What is already evident is that Europe’s approach to technological governance is entering a new phase—one focused less on drafting new obligations and more on managing the pace and precision of implementation, a form of digital regulation that prizes adaptability as much as authority.
In Case You Missed It
Few figures in Silicon Valley embody the collision of philosophy and power as sharply as Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies. In his newly published book The Philosopher in the Valley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, November 4, 2025), acclaimed New York Times Magazine writer Michael Steinberger charts Karp’s volution from Frankfurt School-trained idealist to outspoken defender of Western state authority, presenting Palantir as both a product and a force driving the surveillance age. The book’s exploration of how data, security and ideology intersect is mirrored in Karp’s November 7 appearance on The Axios Show, where he downplays fears of government overreach and reflects on the moral weight of his work. Seen side by side, the book and interview form a rare portrait of a thinker-executive grappling with the paradoxes of power in an age when data itself has become a political instrument.
At the center of the cloud computing race stands Michael Intrator, the quietly intense co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave. Once a cryptocurrency-mining venture, CoreWeave has evolved into the infrastructure backbone of the AI boom—an arc Intrator outlined at Bloomberg Tech London on October 21, describing his mission as “building the next generation of cloud infrastructure to support artificial intelligence at scale.” Two weeks later, on November 6 at WSJ Tech Live, Intrator traced the company’s transformation from cryptocurrency mining to becoming a major AI infrastructure provider, highlighting deep partnerships with Nvidia and OpenAI and the growing importance of high-performance GPU clusters. Both talks are worth watching for a rare glimpse into how today’s infrastructure builders think about power, scale and technological sovereignty.
For those tracking the intersection of technology, politics and leadership, the America Business Forum Miami 2025 deserves attention. On November 6, Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and now head of Relativity Space, opened the second day with a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence, talent and America’s innovation frontier. Later that evening, Jeff Bezos, Founder and Executive Chairman of Amazon, closed the day with reflections on invention, long-term thinking and space entrepreneurship. Framed by Donald Trump’s appearance on day one (November 5), their talks capture how today’s tech leaders imagine power, progress and responsibility in a decade defined by AI and scale. Both sessions offer a compelling window into how technology is reshaping leadership itself, demanding vision and a fluency in the forces now driving global power.
Thanks for reading! Until next time.