On the coloniality and neoliberal underpinnings of the European approach to AI governance

This article examines the European Union's approach to artificial intelligence governance, focusing on the Trustworthy AI and the AI Act. Drawing on decolonial theory, theories of governmentality, and critical discourse analysis, we analyze key European Commission documents issued between 2018 and 2024 to reveal how ethical and human rights discourses mask fundamentally economic and geopolitical motivations. Our analysis demonstrates that Trustworthy AI commodifies trust and ethics to expand digital markets and provide competitive advantages for European companies, rather than fostering social or environmental justice. The AI Act, grounded in market protection through Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, delegates regulatory power to private actors through meta-regulation and self-assessment mechanisms, undermining democratic oversight and public accountability. We argue that the European approach reinforces neoliberal and colonial rationality by universalising European values, objectifying non- European peoples and territories, instrumentalising nature, and legitimising the expansion of surveillance capitalism and data colonialism. Our findings reveal that the risk-based regulatory framework privileges market interests over collective and historical harms, particularly affecting minorities, marginalised communities, and the Global South. While invoking discourses of human dignity, democracy and fundamental rights, the EU's AI governance promotes European hegemony through technological expansion and market domination. This framework risks becoming an international standard, which perpetuates neoliberal and colonial structures globally, prioritising political and economic dominance over human rights, environmental sustainability and plural futures.