(Strasbourg) – The challenges of artificial intelligence – which will also be the theme of Pope Leo’s first encyclical, due to be presented at the Vatican on 25 May – and EU-wide cybersecurity measures: these two issues marked the opening of the second day of the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg. From the heart of the European Parliament, the Council’s representative, Marilena Raouna, warned that the new capabilities of AI are at once “an asset and a risk, because in the wrong hands — those of cybercriminals or hostile state actors —, they can endanger our systems”. The challenges are first and foremost linked to security: the Commission’s Executive Vice-President, Henna Virkkunen, pointed out that weaknesses in digital systems “can now be identified at an unprecedented speed”, which makes a coordinated response indispensable. There is no shortage of tools, from the framework law known as the AI Act to the Cyber Resilience Act that makes it mandatory for hardware and software manufacturers to test their products for vulnerabilities before they reach the market and throughout their lifecycle, ensuring that any flaws discovered are promptly corrected. Addressing the MEPs, the co-legislators also insisted on the importance of tech sovereignty. “We know that regulation alone is not enough: we must strengthen our autonomy in a context of global competition”, Ms Raouna said, recalling Europe’s dependence on external actors for critical cloud services, semiconductors, and cybersecurity tools. Commissioner Virkkunen, for her part, stressed the need “to do more to ensure that Europe provides suitable conditions for sustainable cybersecurity business models”.