Applying GenAI across the EU: matching ambition with outcomes

The EU has recently announced three new AI projects - Floods & droughts, Eunomia.AI, and EuropAI - that aim to support the uptake of Generative AI in public administrations across the EU. The total funding for the projects comes to €36,8 million, of which €18,4 million is provided directly by the EU. The final outcomes of these projects are expected by 2029-2030. 

While testing and scaling GenAI solutions across EU member states does indeed require flexibility, the future influx of funding for GenAI and ApplyAI solutions in the EU must come with strict oversight and increased participation by European private-sector players with real-world experience building GenAI solutions. 

In the past, bureaucracy and Kafkaesque paperwork often prevented fast-moving startups and scaleups from participating in both EU and national public tenders and funding programs. However, the oversight of where and how the EU funding should be directed will increasingly be necessary to prevent a new wave of “AI-washing” - echoing the “innovation-washing” of the past, where the EU funding sometimes did not translate into measurable impact. 

Floods & droughts project

The “Floods & droughts”  consortium is led by Italy, and co-developed by stakeholders from France, Spain, and Greece. The project’s total value is €8,8 million, with €4,4 millions provided by the EU.  The project is expected to end by 30 June 2030. 

The consortium aims to provide public administrations with Gen-AI-enabled tools that improve anticipation, crisis management, and citizen communication related to increasingly common climate disasters such as floods and droughts. 

Eunomia AI project

“Eunomia AI” consortia is led by Spain, and joined by 13 more EEA countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Malta. The project’s total value is €13,9 million, with €6,9 millions provided by the EU.  The project is expected to end by 30 June 2029, with the first pilot projects expected in 1,5 years.

The goals of the project are twofold: first, accelerate the adoption of trustworthy GenAI in European public administrations by deploying it in 25 public administrations and at least 15 public services; second, reinforce the European tech sovereignty by using and fine-tuning the EU’s open-source models. 

The project description states that this will be achieved by procuring and hosting “centralized, high-performance GenAI infrastructure” at the University of Granada, with an option to create federated local nodes. 

EuropAI project

The third project - “EuropAI” is led by the Netherlands, and joined by Denmark, Belgium, and Luxembourg.  The project’s total cost sits at €13,9 million, with €6,9 million provided by EU funding. The estimated project date is on 30 June, 2029. 

The goals of this consortium are to accelerate the adoption of sovereign and trustworthy GenAI solutions across European governments by creating a framework for EU member state governments to co-create, test, and share GenAI solutions in three strategic domains: legislative & administrative simplification, urban analysis and spatial planning, and digital assistance for citizens across web and mobile. 

The consortium describes its own project through a lens of a kitchen: 

“The Challenge: European public administrations currently rely on imported ""AI fast food"" from non-EU providers, like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini - expensive, opaque solutions misaligned with European sovereignty and compliance requirements. The Solution: EuropAI offers a trusted ""community kitchen"" where Member States co-create, test, and share GenAI solutions. Like any well-equipped kitchen, it provides professional infrastructure (Core Orchestrator built on Denmark's OS2ai serving 28,000+ employees and the Netherlands' GovChat-NL), pre-cooked meals ready to serve (Solutions validated through pilots), quality ingredients (reusable Components including European foundation models), clear recipes (Blueprints for replication), nutrition labels (Declarations ensuring compliance), and an organised pantry (App Marketplace)”