Who's met EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen in her first 100 days?

March 11 marks the first 100 days in office of EU Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen –– a milestone often used by politicians to take stock of their electoral promises.  

In her confirmation hearing before EU lawmakers last year prior to taking the portfolio on from France’s Thierry Breton, who served in the first Von der Leyen Commission, Virkkunen made few pledges beyond simplification of existing rules, and cutting red tape.

She inherited a variety of tech files, and some – including the enforcement Digital Services Act (DSA) might have given her a headache in the first months in office. 

In January, Virkkunen was called to the European Parliament to explain the Commission's enforcement of online platform rules, after lawmakers urged her to step up against tech CEOs including X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk for alleged breaches of the DSA.

We take a look at the numbers.  

How many meetings did she have with external companies?

Members of the Commission now need to track and publish details of their meetings with companies for transparency reasons. Not all commissioners have done so, or they do not seem to be up to date, as is the case with Foreign Affairs chief Kaja Kallas.

Virkkunen registered 29 meetings with representatives, with multiple companies present on occasions, and the vast majority of the enterprises she met were European. 

Seven gatherings took place in the context of the Munich Security Conference, such as with German carmaker BMW about the future of the car industry, with US tech companies Microsoft and IBM on global cooperation on tech, and with semiconductor producer Infineon “on how to handle EU dependency for critical inputs such as semiconductors.”

She also met a series of companies during her visits to Paris (including Google and ASML) and Davos, Switzerland (including Uber, Mistral AI and Amazon). 

Some of these discussions centred around AI: Virkkunen promised to make Europe the “AI Continent” in her confirmation hearing, for which an action plan is set to be presented in April. Another announcement that came in the first 100 days was the EU’s intention to mobilise some €200 bln for AI factories.

Who did her cabinet meet?

Her advisors’ meetings are also public; they have to include more detailed minutes of the topics of the discussions. Her twelve cabinet members and policy experts have registered 96 meetings. The majority took place in Brussels, Munich, Paris, Davos or online.

Most of these were with representatives of the tech industry, but there were also carmakers (Hyundai Motors, Volvo Cars), discussing the future of the automotive sector, financial services companies (Revolut), about fraud on online platforms, railway companies as well as fashion companies (Shein), on the subject of e-commerce.

While the majority of the meetings concerned the EU tech agenda more generally, none of the entries registered were solely about cybersecurity, often flagged as a priority for this Commission. 

In her first 100 days in office, Virkkunen presented an action plan for hospitals, as well as a plan to improve the security of submarine cables that are critical for telecom connections.

Discussions with e-commerce and telecom platforms come ahead of proposals on advertising (Digital Fairness Act), and telecom (Digital Networks Act), expected during this mandate.

Which countries did she visit?

Since December 1, Virkkunen visited a total of nine countries, two of which are outside the EU. She went to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos, and India as part of the college of Commissioners visit for the Trade and Technology council.

 She returned to her native Finland four times, but never combined these trips with registered meetings with industry representatives.