Tim Cook held a virtual meeting Monday with Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, to discuss how Apple can bring its redesigned Siri to European iPhone and iPad users without violating EU competition law.
An EU spokesperson described the session as a “constructive exchange on topics of common interest.”
According to the Financial Times, the talks centered specifically on how Apple can avoid fines for breaching the Digital Markets Act while still launching Siri AI in the region.
Why European iPhone Users Are Still Waiting
Apple announced at WWDC26 that Siri AI, a rebuilt version of its voice assistant powered by Apple Intelligence, would ship with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, except in the European Union.
The company cited the Digital Markets Act as the reason, saying EU regulators rejected every interoperability proposal Apple submitted over the preceding months.
Apple’s proposed fix was a system called Trusted System Agent, designed to give third-party virtual assistants access to the same device-level features available to Siri AI.
Apple asked for an 18-month transition window to roll it out gradually while Siri AI launched in parallel. The European Commission declined.
The Commission pushed back publicly. Spokesman Thomas Regnier said the decision to withhold Siri AI from Europe was Apple’s alone, adding that nothing in the DMA prevents Apple from releasing new products in the EU.
His statement also said Apple had been unable to build interoperability tools that met the bloc’s privacy and security requirements.
What This Means for Users With No Clear Timeline
Apple’s official statement after WWDC26 offered no date for when European users might get access to Siri AI.
The company said the delay stems from what it called regulators’ failure to acknowledge the security risks its proposed solutions were designed to address.
That left millions of iPhone and iPad owners in the EU without a feature that will be available to users in the US, UK, and elsewhere when iOS 27 ships later this year.
Cook’s decision to handle this directly mirrors his recent pattern of personal involvement in high-stakes government negotiations.
Two weeks before Monday’s meeting, he gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal about a global memory shortage that led Apple to raise prices on several Mac and iPad models.
Days later, the Financial Times reported that Apple had been lobbying the Trump administration for at least a month to ease restrictions on Chinese memory suppliers.
The Virkkunen meeting carries similar weight. Even after stepping down as CEO, Cook is expected to handle Apple’s global regulatory relationships.
A dispute that blocks access to a centerpiece software feature across an entire continent is exactly the kind of situation that demands his attention. Monday’s call does not mean a deal is close, but it does confirm that both sides are still talking.
