This would require politicians and policy-makers that think long-term, know what they're regulating, and maybe have been in the field. I don't think Law school Eurocrats can do any of the 3 items above, at least not well enough. This is either a way to chop at the (poorly designed and already watered down) GDPR or true, unapologetic lack of care.

I'm hoping to go for my 3rd startup and ‘compliance costs’ have never been stifling; it's just more expensive to run a business here and there's far, far less funding available. That's really it.

Belgium's tax haven will make some people willing to give you 10k in post-seed. Wow. We hunted VCs for 1.5 years to negotiate one million-ish euros after showing market traction. We just aren't on the same level as the US, and that's kinda okay. Grants might work, but I mostly see grants for things that won't compete well in the current market.

AI nonsense won't make us more competitive — but hey, we'll arrive late to the bubble. We need to be building the kind of core, dependable infrastructure that would honour privacy, make us more independent. Backing off on privacy protections won't yield a mobile OS, an independent browser, better cloud options, etc.

It's just… lazy. “Slap AI on it”-level policy. Ugh.

Politicians don’t need to know the details, they need to be advised by competent people with the best interests of the public in mind. Which may sound straightforward while being really difficult to get right.