ALDE Congress is the largest gathering of our party members alongside our European sister parties. The Liberal Democrats delegation was at the heart of Europe in Vienna last weekend. First, we got most of the resolutions we had cooperated on in the previous months passed. Moreover, Baroness Smith was elected as the ALDE Vice President.

While interacting with our European sister parties as the chairs of both the Liberal International British Group and the Lib Dems Friends of Hong Kong, I brought up interesting discussions on AI and especially how younger generations use such technology to engage in politics. AI and digital technologies have been used to challenge authoritarian regimes while allowing democracy activists to reduce their physical exposure in countries such as Belarus and Russia.

But given democracy campaigns have now engaged the use of AI, what is our commitment to AI resilience?

What shifts are needed in the EU’s economic model to create a more favourable environment for the AI industry to grow? You can read my summary of the resolution – ‘Building European Technology Sovereignty for Democratic Resilience’ here.

This is the resolution European governments need. I have long advocated that the EU needs to build up its resilience in the IT sector under the current chaotic geopolitical environment. The vulnerabilities posed by a potential US ‘kill switch’, geographically concentrated AI infrastructure, and reliance on US-led payment systems have been exposed by the Trump administration. Worse, Trump has used Europe’s vulnerabilities as leverage in negotiations, often to Putin’s advantage.

However, while I am glad to see the overwhelming support among our European sister parties, I am frustrated because our party lacks momentum on policy on AI and Cloud infrastructure, and other technical details.

Back in April this year, our party announced a plan for ‘AI Digital Independence to end the UK’s dependence on US Tech Giants’, which includes proposals for:

1. Protecting the future of work through AI education;
2. Protecting the UK’s creative industry;
3. A new AI regulator;
4. A National Online Crime Agency

Compared with the policies already adopted by our European counterparts, the party’s policy draft, as it stands, did not go far enough. This policy did not directly answer the ‘kill switch’, and did little to tackle the issue of resilience.

In order to reduce our reliance on US companies, we need a policy on prioritising European-based cloud providers and enhanced UK cybersecurity systems. Moreover, we need whole-of-society resilience incorporating infrastructure, defence, and utilities.

We need a UK industrial strategy – technology systems forming the backbone of defence can be blocked or become obsolete during a conflict. We must have the manufacturing capacity to win through attrition and a changing war theatre. For this reason, a UK source for critical defence systems and spare parts is needed, and we must have reliable partners in the supply chain to reduce the dependence on external political approval too far from the UK’s reach.

Moreover, to ensure the industrial strategy and supply chain are not hindered, a European payment system is essential.

Then there is data ownership. Data is a precious commodity in the age of AI and its machine learning. We need to set rules to prevent sensitive public and critical infrastructure data from being transferred to hostile third-country jurisdictions.

This is a stimulating opportunity for the UK to build a closer relationship with our closest neighbours. With China’s whole-of-society approach in propelling its assertion and manufacturing footprint, no single European nation can carry out this project alone. We must now take another step towards a pan-European defence mechanism for cybersecurity and infrastructure. With the United States having repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NATO, we in Europe must be ready to step up.

One of my key takeaways I got from this year’s ALDE congress is that we need to take a step forward. AI has become more entrenched in our daily lives. With the uncertainty from the Trump administration, it is time for us to create a more all-round AI policy to build UK resilience.

* Larry Ngan is a member of Federal International Relations Committee, Chair, Liberal International British Group and Liberal Democrats Friends of Hong Kong