The White Paper on Artificial Intelligence — A European Approach to Excellence and Trust was published to shape a coordinated EU strategy for AI amid rapid technological expansion, global competition, and emerging risks to rights and safety. It outlines a dual “ecosystem” strategy: fostering excellence through investment, research, and innovation, and building trust through a risk-based regulatory framework addressing high-risk AI applications, transparency, accountability, and human oversight. This policy blueprint set the conceptual and legislative groundwork for the EU AI Act, establishing the core principle of human-centric, values-based AI governance grounded in EU fundamental rights and market unity.