In a landmark decision highlighting escalating global tensions over data sovereignty, the European Parliament has instituted a critical security block, preventing lawmakers from using integrated artificial intelligence tools on their official devices. This unprecedented restriction, enacted in Brussels in October 2024, directly addresses profound cybersecurity and privacy vulnerabilities associated with uploading confidential legislative correspondence to external cloud servers.
The parliament’s IT department issued a directive via internal email, explicitly stating it could not guarantee the security of data uploaded to the servers of third-party AI companies. The decision primarily targets widely used AI chatbots and assistants, including Anthropic’s Claude, Microsoft’s Copilot, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The security concern stems from two interconnected risks: first, uploading data to these platforms, predominantly operated by U.S.-based corporations, subjects that information to U.S. jurisdiction where authorities can compel data disclosure under laws like the Cloud Act. Second, AI models typically use user-provided data for training, creating a tangible risk that sensitive information uploaded by a European lawmaker could resurface in responses to other users.
This internal ban creates a striking contrast with broader EU policy discussions. While Europe enforces the strong General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the European Commission has recently proposed legislative amendments aimed at relaxing certain data protection rules to facilitate easier data usage by tech giants for training their AI models. This dichotomy underscores the complex balancing act between fostering technological innovation and upholding foundational data sovereignty principles.
The Parliament’s action occurs against a backdrop of EU member states reevaluating their reliance on U.S. tech giants, amplified by recent reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to major tech and social media firms demanding information on individuals critical of U.S. policies.
Concurrently, a significant security vulnerability at Microsoft has validated these concerns. Microsoft confirmed a critical bug (tracked as CW1226324) that allowed its Copilot AI to access and summarize customers’ confidential emails without authorization for approximately six weeks, from January 2026 until fixes began in early February. The bug specifically affected Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat functionality within Office applications and bypassed established data loss prevention policies designed to prevent sensitive information from reaching AI models.
Cybersecurity experts note that this incident demonstrates how traditional security models struggle to account for AI system behaviors. "When AI functions as both tool and user within software ecosystems, it creates unique attack surfaces," explained Dr. Elena Rodriguez, Director of AI Security Research at Stanford University. The European Parliament’s precautionary action, announced just days before Microsoft disclosed the Copilot bug, demonstrates growing institutional awareness of these AI-related security risks in sensitive environments.
The immediate impact restricts European Parliament staff and officials from using AI-powered features in their productivity software, potentially affecting workflows for drafting, summarizing, and translating texts. However, the directive may accelerate development and adoption of sovereign European AI solutions or pressure technology vendors to create fully isolated, on-premise AI deployments.
