ZURICH, July 13 (Reuters) - Siemens and SAP

CEOs have urged the European Union to revise its

artificial intelligence legislation, saying the current rules

stifle innovation.

SAP CEO Christian Klein and Siemens CEO Roland Busch told

the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that a new regulatory

framework is needed to support rather than hinder technological

advancement.

The EU's AI Act, which became law last year, governs the

development and use of AI systems to ensure they are safe,

transparent and respect fundamental rights.

The law classifies AI applications into risk categories,

according to which providers must meet certain security and

transparency requirements.

But Siemens' Busch said the Act was a key reason Europe is

lagging, adding overlapping and sometimes contradictory

regulations are hampering progress.

He said the EU's Data Act, another law which sets out

obligations on how companies use consumer and corporate data,

was "toxic" for developing digital business models.

While several companies including Google owner Alphabet

and Facebook owner Meta recently wrote to

Brussels asking for the rules to be postponed, Busch declined to

sign their letter, saying the proposal did not go far enough.

SAP's Klein warned against simply copying the U.S. and only

investing heavily in infrastructure and data centres,

emphasizing that infrastructure shortages are not the main

barrier in Europe.

Instead, both CEOs called for reforming data rules before

investing in data centres.

"We are sitting on a treasure trove of data in Europe, but

we are not yet able to tap into it," Busch told the newspaper.

"It's not access to computing capacity that we're currently

lacking, but the release of resources."