EU tech chief and Tim Cook hold ‘constructive’ talks as Siri AI remains banned in Europe
Apple CEO Tim Cook and the European Union’s chief technology officer spoke via video on Monday, and both sides described the exchange as “constructive”. That word does a lot of work.
Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees the bloc’s digital rulebook, held a meeting with Cook on June 30. An EU spokesman said the two “had a constructive exchange on topics of mutual interest, where work is ongoing”.
Neither side elaborated on what was agreed upon, and the language suggests that there was very little.
The topic that brought them to the same screen is Siri AI, Apple’s redesigned voice assistant, and whether it can launch in Europe without violating the Digital Markets Act. Apple has already confirmed that this feature will not ship to the iPhone or iPad in the EU when iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 arrive later this year.
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That decision, first reported in June, left European users without an assistant on two of their most used devices.
Apple attributes the delay to the Commission’s actions. It says regulators have rejected all proposals they’ve put forward over the past few months to bring Siri AI to Europe while safely supporting rival assistants.
The commission tells the story differently, saying that Apple was unable to create an interface that met the bloc’s privacy and security standards.
Both aspects can be true at the same time, which is part of why the deadlock has proved so difficult to break.
The crux of the dispute is how far the DMA interoperability rules go. Apple says the Commission’s ruling will force it to give any third-party assistant the same deep access that Siri AI enjoys, including the ability to read and send messages, make purchases, and execute across all installed apps.
The company says that taking away those competitors’ licenses would leave users exposed, and that the Commission has yet to accept its protections. Brussels sees that access as a point of law designed to reward open security platforms.
The restriction only applies to iOS and iPadOS, the two systems that DMA has designated as official. EU users will still get Siri AI in macOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27. Monday’s announcement didn’t change that.
Apple did not commit to a timeline for bringing Assistant to European iPhones, and the Commission did not sign any softening of its position. The meeting, on public records at least, revealed an agreement to continue talking.
Time has its weight. Cook is preparing to step down as Apple’s chief executive, with hardware boss John Ternus expected to take over, and much of Cook’s remaining interest in the company is centered on his role as its chief liaison with the government.
A good sign-off with Brussels fits that brief. The dispute also comes as the Commission tightens its grip on the broader issue, moving to force Google to open up Android to rival providers under the same law. Apple is not being singled out, even if it feels that way in Cupertino.
Widespread relationships lack warmth. The commission fined Apple €500m over the App Store guidelines, and the company remains under scrutiny for several DMA practices.
Against that background, a single video call reads less like a success than two parties keeping a heavy channel open.
What wasn’t delivered Monday was anything a European iPhone owner could use. Siri AI remains unavailable on the devices most people in the bloc own, and the two groups are only committed to an ongoing conversation.
Whether the next cycle produces more than a token remains to be seen. For now, the assistant lives on the far side of the control line or Apple or Brussels seems ready to be redrawn, and the “constructive” label sits on the standoff that hasn’t moved.
