The EU Commission’s decision to appoint the chair of Siemens, Jim Hagemann Snabe, as AI envoy is rife with extraordinary conflicts of interest. Brussels is currently engaged in an unprecedented rollback of digital, social, and environmental rules, which often closely mirror industry lobbying demands. Now it seems that corporate interests
Bram Vranken
Earlier this month, the EU Commission announced its long-awaited ‘tech sovereignty package‘. Nominally this is intended to reduce the EU’s dependence on Big Tech. Hidden within was news of the appointment of Jim Hagemann Snabe as a special advisor on industrial AI.
It is hard to imagine a more glaring conflict of interest.
Snabe will continue as chair of Siemens which not only has a significant presence in the AI market, but is actively lobbying EU institutions on the topic.
Furthermore, Snabe only very recently suspended his role on the advisory boards of Google Cloud and the US-based company C3.ai, still holds stocks in the latter with a current value of over $4m [€3.48m], and has extensive holdings in other digital-related industries too.
All this makes his appointment deeply problematic.
We ‘need deregulation’?
Snabe’s appointment comes at a time when the von der Leyen commission has embarked on an unprecedented assault on existing EU rules, including on digital rights.
While the commission has been careful to cloak its deregulation agenda in a mist of technocratic and nebulous language, von der Leyen recently admitted the quiet part out loud: “we all agree we need simplification, we need deregulation”.
This agenda has been closely shaped by corporate interests.
Almost 70 percent of the second von der Leyen Commission’s meetings thus far have been with companies or business associations (a proportion far greater than usual).
And the commission’s Digital Omnibus – launched in November 2025, and which aims to water down rules on AI and data protection – has been no exception.
Concerningly, von der Leyen is increasingly buying into the Big Tech lobby frame that ‘regulation’ stands in the way of innovation.
Teenage suicides and thirsty AI data centres
Even as it becomes ever clearer that new AI models need guardrails, whether related to the energy costs of data centres, the suicides of teens using largely untested chatbots, AI-generated sexual images of children, or regular hacks of major companies via for example the use of new AI agents, to name just a few.
Yet rather than tackling the monopoly power of Big Tech the Commission is seeking to undermine our digital rights in the expectation of catching up in the ‘global AI race’.
In fact, von der Leyen has intervened personally to postpone a fine against the US tech giant Google for cementing its market-dominant position. It remains unclear how preserving a monopoly like this is good for ‘European innovation’.
Snabe’s appointment feels like a mask-off moment, where the commission has dropped any pretence about whose interests it serves.
Michael McNamara, a Liberal MEP and former rapporteur on the AI Omnibus, has remarked scathingly that the von der Leyen commission is beginning to resemble a “pale imitation of the Trump White House”.
Siemens lobby footprint in Brussels
Siemens already exerts significant influence over EU policies, spending at least €3.5m on lobbying in Brussels every year, and holding over one meeting every two weeks with the current commission.
In a top-level meeting with von der Leyen just last month, Siemens and six other European tech CEOs, agreed to meet every three months.
The company is eager to exploit this access to achieve political wins.
Just weeks ago, Siemens aggressively lobbied to weaken the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, seeking to exempt its own products — industrial AI — from the legislation. Most national governments and experts resisted this change as it would create legal complexity, but it received high-level support from German chancellor Friedrich Merz, and did indeed lead to the AI Act being further weakened.
Digital rights organisation EDRi responded: “when powerful actors complain loudly enough, safeguards can be recast as burdens, and rules that protect people can be reopened”.
Siemens lobbied to remove sector-specific rules from the AI Act, which for example includes regulations relating to medical devices.
Yet the dangers of AI systems here are beyond question. A recent European Press Prize-winning investigation revealed how the AI system in Spanish hospitals used to detect potentially lethal forms of skin cancer was failing in over 30 percent of cases, a result that medical experts deemed poor and dangerous.
Meanwhile if this appointment goes ahead Snabe – who will continue his role running Siemens alongside his new position as an envoy for industrial AI – will be well able to influence EU policies on such issues.
A history of problematic appointments
With mounting pressure over Snabe’s appointment, the commission is refusing to reveal the “specific safeguards” it has put in place to prevent conflicts of interest, citing data protection reasons.
This is deeply cynical – especially given the commission’s intention to weaken privacy rules for everyone else.
Clearly, no safeguards will mitigate the conflicts of interest that come with Snabe’s appointment. With one of Europe’s largest companies now sitting in an office in the Berlaymont building, a line is crossed.
Von der Leyen should revoke Snabe’s appointment.
