European Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Bridging Uncertainty With Evidence-Informed Policy Making

• Published date: 01 September 2025
• Author: Richard von Maydell
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70016
• Section: Research Article

Contemporary European Politics

RESEARCH ARTICLE

European Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Bridging

Uncertainty With Evidence‐Informed Policy Making

Richard von Maydell

Joint Research Center, European Commission, Ispra, Italy

Correspondence: Richard von Maydell (richard.maydell@ec.europa.eu)

Received: 29 October 2024 | Revised: 26 March 2025 | Accepted: 25 June 2025

Keywords: artificial intelligence | better regulation| governance | multicriteria analysis | sensitivity analysis

ABSTRACT

This article explores the current challenges posed by the growing significance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and considers

potential regulatory changes to better manage this rapidly developing technology through evidence‐informed policy‐making.

Current key challenges for governance discussed consider the ambiguous definition of AI, the assessment of its multifaceted

impacts, the handling of inherent uncertainties, the reconciliation of regulation with innovation, and the pursuit of regulatory

harmonization. We propose policy recommendations such as the application of Multi‐Criteria Analyses, Sensitivity Analyses,

and the implementation of Regulatory Sandboxes. Additionally, the paper highlights Europe's potential leadership role in

fostering interoperability and harmonization within AI regulation and emphasizes Europe's contribution to promoting inter-

national regulatory harmonization.

1 | Introduction

Taeihagh (2021) argues that despite the increasing discussion

and analysis of potential economic,technological or social effects

of Artificial Intelligence (AI), respective AI governance is still

underdeveloped. However, modern and appropriate AI regula-

tion and standardsare urgently needed. Feldstein (2024) refers to

a growing mismatch between the speed of technologicaladvance

and the development of modern regulatory frameworks that he

also calls a ‘pacing problem’. The IEEE (2024)evenhighlights

that governments currently do not have the level of knowledge,

technical expertise, and ethical training that would be necessary

to simultaneouslysupport innovation and protectpublic safety in

times of increasing importance of AI. Furthermore, setting up

appropriate AI governance and regulation is particularly chal-

lenging due to the lack of scientific evidence that could help

inform policy making (Nordström 2022).

Therefore, in this paper, we focus on analysing current gov-

ernance challenges related to the increasing importance of AI,

along with exploring possible regulatory adjustments to better

accommodate this emerging technology. We focus on topics

such as the ambiguous definition of AI, managing the varied

impacts of AI, evaluating uncertainties, balancing regulation

with innovation and harmonizing regulations. Highlighted as

possible policy recommendations are tools in the area of Multi‐

Criteria Analyses, Sensitivity Analyses and Regulatory Sand-

boxes. Furthermore, we emphasize Europe's potential role in

advancing interoperability and harmonization in AI regulation

and particularly describe Europe's possible role in the effort to

promote international interoperability and harmonization.

The EU remains at the frontier for Better Regulation practices

(Listorti et al. 2020), providing practical guidance for evidence‐

informed policy making. However, there are novel challenges

with the use of data and AI, and questions can be raised about

whether existing governance approaches may be insufficient

(Taeihagh 2021), as this novel technology requires new laws

and regulations (Stigler Committee 2019). Head (2023) argues

that if no evidence‐informed foundations for policy‐making are

provided, the political debate will only become a ‘clash of

opinions and slogans’. Thus, a significant challenge remains to

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly

cited.

© 2025 The Author(s). Contemporary European Politics published by University Association of Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70016