The bottom line: A leading corporation that successfully lobbied against stricter AI rules now receives direct decision-making authority in their implementation.
The European Commission has appointed Jim Hagemann Snabe, the CEO of Siemens, as an adviser on industrial AI. This has triggered fierce criticism because Siemens had massively lobbied just weeks earlier for a weakening of the EU AI Act rules.
On Wednesday, the Commission appointed Jim Hagemann Snabe as an unpaid adviser to President Ursula von der Leyen and Tech Chief Henna Virkkunen. The 60-year-old Dane is to develop proposals on AI infrastructure, frontier AI technologies and industrial AI adoption until March 2027.
Snabe is simultaneously CEO of Siemens and former CEO of SAP. Siemens had publicly lobbied for an exemption of industrial applications from the scope of the AI Act – citing innovation constraints from overlapping regulatory frameworks. This position found support among German top politicians, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In May, a European Parliament committee voted in favour of the exemption, making a descent in the plenary foreseeable.
For critics, this represents a clear conflict of interest. Brando Benifei, the Parliament’s lead negotiator on the AI Act, warns: “Appointing Siemens’ chairman after massive lobbying to weaken the AI Act sends the wrong political signal.” Bram Vranken from the lobbying watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory speaks of an “obvious conflict of interest”.
The Commission stated it had found no conflicts. Snabe will step down from positions at Google Cloud Europe and C3 AI. The Commission does not foresee a recusal obligation regarding Siemens. It remains unclear how future meetings within his advisory role will be documented in the lobbying register – the question went unanswered. Siemens is also part of the new lobbying group European Tech Creators (alongside SAP, ASML, Mistral, Airbus, Ericsson, Nokia), which plans regular meetings with Commission leadership.
Source: www.politico.eu · Published 4 June 2026
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