Interviewing Charlotte Verhamme: Belgium’s AI strategy meets the EU AI Act

In this episode, we sit down with Charlotte Verhamme, Attaché Digital Affairs, to unpack what actually happens inside the EU “digital dossiers” machine: how Flanders feeds into Belgium’s position, how that becomes an EU negotiation stance, and what the AI Act and the Digital Omnibus mean in practice (standards, compliance, timelines, and the tradeoffs between innovation and safety).

🙋‍♀️ Guest: Charlotte Verhamme - Attaché Digital Affairs, Representation of Flanders to the EU
📩 Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-verhamme-6a4073182/

• (00:07) - Welcome + Charlotte’s role (Flemish digital affairs attaché)
• (02:04) - How Belgium negotiates EU digital files (competence split + “Telecom” council)
• (04:28) - Digital omnibus + why the AI Act sits inside it (and why it matters now)
• (06:47) - AI Act 101: product-safety logic + risk tiers (incl. “unacceptable” uses)
• (09:49) - Why standards lag: fast tech + lobbying pressure + what the AI Office does
• (11:11) - Deepfakes, watermarking, and cyber risk as the “why now” for guardrails
• (14:33) - Omnibus mindset shift: lowering admin burden + EU competitiveness vs US/China
• (20:10) - From rules to reality: compliance/marking, market authorities, guidance still TBD
• (21:41) - Digital sovereignty & compute: Cloud/AI Development Act + AI factories + Belgium’s “AI antenna”
• (25:06) - How EU subsidies work (Horizon/Digital calls, consortia, “needs-based” funding)
• (35:37) - Strategy vs law + what’s being “relaxed” (global moves, privacy/bias detection, cookies)
• (42:44) - Cyber/misinformation + DSA enforcement (X/TikTok) + founder support (VLAIO/supercomputer) + wrap