In Computer Weekly's roundup of this year's IT stories in continental Europe, we cover events in the Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden and Spain.
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence (AI) features prominently in this survey, and no part of enterprise IT escapes the spotlight. Technology knows no boundaries in the business sector, with countries across Europe vying for investment in AI while addressing the challenges that AI brings.
Also of great importance are articles on the never-ending fight against cybercrime, as well as some of the latest developments from the Netherlands, where researchers are expanding knowledge in the field of cybersecurity.
We also looked at how emerging technologies are changing the lives of European citizens, from how they commute to work to how they decide to vote in the next election.
A “discriminatory” artificial intelligence model used by Sweden's social security agency to involve people in benefit fraud investigations was suspended this year after intervention by the country's Data Protection Authority.
Starting June 2025, IMY participation was called after joint investigation by Lighthouse Reports and Svenska Dagbladet. In November 2024, it was revealed that a machine learning system used by Försäkringskassan, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, was disproportionately and erroneously flagging certain groups for further investigation into welfare fraud.
These included women, people of “foreign” origin, people with low incomes and people without a university education.
The flight of artificial intelligence companies from Norway is accelerating due to fears of the government's decision to pass controversial European artificial intelligence laws.
As pressure mounts on the European Commission to scrap strict rules governing “high-risk” artificial intelligence systems, Norway is moving forward with plans to implement artificial intelligence laws. I'm in a hurry.
The government has stated its aim to ensure that Norwegian law is compatible with European Union (EU) law – a principle of the EEA agreement under which companies from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have access to the European single market.
French President Emmanuel Macron wants Europe to take a leading role in the development of artificial intelligence.
He welcomed the partnership between French artificial intelligence startup Mistral AI and AI chip giant Nvidiaduring which Mistral AI will create a cloud platform called Mistral Compute. It aims to compete with offerings from other cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure by introducing a European option for the first time.
Macron said it would lead to a historic shift, calling it “our fight for sovereignty, for strategic autonomy.”
Santander Bank will introduce mandatory AI training program for all its employees in 2026 as part of its plan to make technology part of its DNA.
A Spanish bank is accelerating its use of artificial intelligence after saving more than 200 million euros last year.
In addition to a mandatory AI training plan for all employees, which will begin next year and includes training in the responsible use of AI, the bank is offering training for its development, marketing and front-line staff, including through workshops and hackathons.
Eindhoven University of Technology demonstrated the unfortunate truth that even organizations that meet all cybersecurity requirements can fall victim to sophisticated attacks when attackers gained enterprise-level access to its network and began preparing for what forensic experts later concluded could be a devastating ransomware attack.
The university's response was dramatic: All 14,000 students and 4,700 staff were cut off from the Internet for an entire week. The decision, made within hours of the hack being discovered, prevented months of disrupted operations and millions of ransom demands.
A coalition of countries provided Ukraine with more than €1.3 billion in telecommunications, information technology and other high-tech equipment since Russia began Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
While the amount may be small compared to Ukraine's military budget, the equipment provided with the support of Western governments and companies was critical to allowing the Ukrainian government and institutions to continue to function in the face of Russian attack.
The race between deepfake creators and detectors has entered a new phase: researchers from the Netherlands reveals technology that reads a person's heartbeat using video analysis.
As AI creates increasingly convincing fake videos, forensic scientists are responding by creating an ever-expanding array of detection methods.
Detecting deepfakes requires multiple approaches to work in concert, with no single method providing definitive proof.
The German healthcare system has started program aimed at improving communication and decision making replacing faxes, telephone calls and voice mail with encrypted messaging services.
The project, overseen by Germany's national digital health agency Gematik, promises a highly secure alternative to WhatsApp that will allow patients, healthcare providers and insurance companies to coordinate care.
Initial trials showed that this service resulted in significant time savings for medical staff, freeing them from repeated telephone calls.
Since May 2022, a semi-autonomous bus operating with one of the highest levels of autonomy in the world has been offering public transport services in the coastal municipality of Stavanger. The project demonstrates How autonomous vehicles can operate successfully in challenging urban environments.
Unlike simpler tests of autonomous vehicles, which are carried out in controlled or isolated environments, Stavanger's autonomous bus travels through the city center, passing roundabouts, narrow streets and passing pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. This is a real-life test bed for autonomous mobility, showing that the technology can perform effectively in everyday driving scenarios.
As the dust settled on a historically tense election in the Netherlands, a remarkable trend emerged. While party leaders focused on traditional campaign issues, voters used their ballots to send a clear message: digital competence in parliament is no longer a nice-to-haveit's a necessity. This grassroots movement, spurred by initiatives like NerdVote, has successfully propelled tech-savvy candidates into parliament despite their low rankings on party lists.
While the center-liberal D66 party and Geert Wilders' far-right PVV battled for first place, the real story for the tech sector happened further down the ballot.
