Bottom line: Europe is avoiding direct confrontation over the U.S. export controls blocking Anthropic’s new models and is instead attempting to position AI safety as a field for cooperation.
The EU intends to avoid direct confrontation with Trump at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains over U.S. export controls against Anthropic. Instead, European diplomats are focusing on cooperation on AI safety and rebuilding trust.
On Wednesday, European leaders will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the G7 summit — just days after the U.S. halted access to Anthropic’s latest AI models. The U.S. had required Anthropic to block its newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for non-U.S. users. These are tightly controlled models with enhanced cybersecurity capabilities.
Despite this hostile measure, European diplomats are signaling no willingness to confront the issue. Thomas Regnier, spokesperson for the European Commission, stated before the meeting: “We are ready to address these security risks jointly with our like-minded partners.” A European diplomat spoke of the need to “rebuild trust and establish a circle of trust”. An official conversation between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump on Tuesday did not mention the topic.
The official agenda of the lunch with AI CEOs such as OpenAI Chief Sam Altman, DeepMind Head Demis Hassabis, and Mistral Founder Arthur Mensch focuses on economic growth and societal resilience. However, an industry representative acknowledged that the Anthropic dispute would be the “elephant in the room”. Anthropic confirmed Amodei’s participation and announced a meeting with EU cybersecurity authorities on Thursday in Brussels — described as “ongoing cooperation on the implications of frontier AI for cybersecurity”.
EU Tech Chief Henna Virkkunen cautioned in the European Parliament that “measures in this context should not be discriminatory against partners”. Brussels is navigating the issue carefully: there is no formal notification from Washington regarding the export controls, only the statement that Anthropic itself released. Under the EU AI Act, providers of frontier AI models must already meet strict risk assessment requirements.
Source: www.politico.eu · Published June 16, 2026
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