Marc Murtra, president of Telefónica, was emphatic at the annual meeting of the Cercle d'Economia: the key for the European Union to regain its strategic autonomy in the technological field, especially in the face of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution, lies in regulatory simplification. The executive warned that "when one regulates absolutely everything, it generates costs that we all have to absorb later".

During his speech at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, Murtra insisted that regulatory simplification implies taking risks and that the "fear of failure" is an obstacle. "To get a better return on our investment, we have to be able to make mistakes," he stated, adding that "all roads lead to Rome, but we need the right incentives".

The president of Spain's leading telecom company stressed the need for European companies to gain size to face the "simultaneous revolution" in AI, quantum computing, and drones. "We are in an era of scale; if we want to develop technology in Europe, we have to gain scale," he affirmed. He graphically recalled that "ten years ago, the five most important technology companies in the United States were worth eight times the value of all European technology companies; now their value is 68 times that of European companies".

Within the framework of the sessions titled 'Europe's Strategic Autonomy: Myth or Reality?', Murtra acknowledged that "full sovereignty does not exist" but defended the possibility of achieving strategic autonomy, citing United States' dependence on chips from Taiwan or machinery from the Netherlands. He pointed out that the EU has not yet achieved the energy or chip sovereignty needed to be autonomous in AI.

However, Murtra offered two optimistic notes. On one hand, he foresees a "Copernican" shift in the European Union towards deregulation to enhance strategic autonomy. On the other, he asserted that Europe "has the GDP, the talent, the engineers, the companies, and the institutions." "We have it all," he concluded.