Affirmation of a shared European ambition and submission of a report to the French and German authorities

On the occasion of the Franco-German Forum on Industrial AI, held at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the report of the Franco-German AI Industry Executives' Dialogue was formally submitted to Thomas Courbe, Director General for Enterprise, and Dr Beate Baron, Director General for Industrial Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Led by the French Embassy in Berlin and coordinated by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Inria and IMT, this report aims to propose concrete actions to build a sovereign, competitive and sustainable European AI ecosystem.

This submission marks the culmination of work initiated in January 2025, when the Dialogue was launched in Berlin. Initiated by the French Embassy in Germany and jointly led by Inria, IMT and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, this initiative has brought together, within an open coalition framework, leading actors from industry, applied research and academia in both countries.

The report was presented by Bruno Sportisse, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inria, Boris Otto, Director of Fraunhofer ISST and Chairman of the Fraunhofer ICT Group and Cécile Dubarry, Executive President of IMT. Through this joint presentation, the three institutions highlighted the complementarity of their expertise in support of a shared objective: establishing a European AI ecosystem that is sovereign, competitive and sustainable. Furthermore, their combined expertise and capacity when it comes to technological innovation, economic and governance models for the integrated Data and AI value chain complements industrial contributions to the European AI Continent strategy in an effective way.

Shared priorities for a more sovereign European industrial AI

From its earliest stages, the Dialogue enabled the alignment of strategic priorities between the two countries. It identified a common set of challenges, ranging from simplifying the regulatory framework to strengthening AI infrastructures and computing capacities in Europe, as well as ensuring access to sustainable energy and developing talent. This convergence also includes a clear intention to focus efforts on strategic industrial sectors and to promote artificial intelligence that is both high-performing and trustworthy.

Seven areas for action to move from analysis to projects

In this context, more than one hundred economic and scientific stakeholders were mobilised through dedicated sectoral workshops. They identified concrete use cases and investment priorities across several key domains, including manufacturing, energy, healthcare, agrifood, as well as media and telecommunications. The proposals put forward are grounded in a detailed understanding of industrial needs and reflect a resolutely operational approach.

A structured overview of priorities for industrial AI in Europe

The report is structured around seven complementary areas of action, each providing a structured overview of needs, the levers to be activated at the European level, and putting forward recommendations.

1. Digital and computing infrastructures

Develop robust European infrastructures (cloud, networks, computing capacities, data spaces) capable of supporting the large-scale deployment of AI solutions, while ensuring interoperability and energy efficiency.

2. Sovereignty and regulatory framework

Clarify and adapt regulatory frameworks to reconcile innovation, competitiveness and sovereignty requirements, particularly in the implementation of European regulations on AI and data, and in extending the cloud cybersecurity label to data spaces.

3. Healthcare

Accelerate the adoption of AI in healthcare systems by facilitating access to data, improving interoperability and validating solutions, in order to enhance care pathways and system efficiency.

4. Manufacturing industry

Support the integration of AI into industrial processes, particularly within SMEs and mid-sized companies, to optimise production, strengthen resilience and enhance expertise. Reduce technical costs through the implementation of support mechanisms.

5. Media

Preserve information sovereignty and business models in the sector in the face of the rise of AI, while promoting content or data and regulating its use, particularly for AI training.

6. Energy

Leverage AI to optimise energy systems, improve their resilience and support the transition towards more sustainable and decarbonised models, for example through the deployment of dedicated LLMs.

7. Agrifood

Harness the potential of AI to improve performance, traceability and sustainability across agricultural and food value chains.

A field-driven approach to fostering European projects

First presented at the Adopt AI Summit in November 2025, these results were consolidated in the report submitted on 17 April 2026 to the French and German authorities. The report provides a structured basis to guide public policies, research programmes and industrial initiatives at European level.

At the heart of this initiative lies a field-driven approach, in which the needs of industry directly shape roadmaps and future initiatives. It is a key lever for the emergence of concrete projects capable of strengthening Europe's competitiveness in artificial intelligence. The proposals set out in the report are intended to feed into the IPCEI AI (Important Project of Common European Interest), contributing to the definition and consolidation of strategic industrial projects at European scale.