Safe and innovative AI rules: a world premier made in Europe!

Renew Europe, as key actor in crafting AI legislation, welcomes the vote and EU’s worldwide leadership in designing AI law. The union-wide regulatory framework on AI put forward by the EU is ground-breaking, paving the way for the world's first horizontal regulation on AI.

Renew Europe has been pushing for a legislation that will enable the development of a trustworthy, ethically responsible and technically robust AI, while at the same time upholding the utmost respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.Our group thoroughly took care to make this regulation tailor-made to become global standard. Innovative, safe and without overregulation. One market, one rule, made in Europe.

Renew Europe MEP Dragoş Tudorache (REPER, Romania) and rapporteur on the file:

"Our group’s priorities are well reflected in the final text of the Parliament, including, among others, stronger sandboxes supporting start-ups and SMEs across Europe, a stronger governance structure consolidating the digital single market and our ability to keep up to date with recent developments in AI, legal clarity for companies and a self-assessment regime reducing compliance costs, and reasonable but important rules for foundation models and generative AI".

Renew Europe has fought to ensure AI systems that respect fundamental rights and the EU's democratic values, provide legal certainty concerning innovation and investment, and facilitate the development of a single market for lawful and safe AI.

Renew Europe underlines the high importance of common definition for AI between EU states, prohibits the deployment of certain practises, such as the use of facial recognition in public places, and sets ground rules based on risk levels, spanning from 'minimal' to 'unacceptable'. Those using tools considered high-risk will be required to show great transparency in their utilisation.

Renew Europe MEP Svenja Hahn, (FDP, Germany) and shadow on the file:

"It is a liberal win and a strong signal for the negotiations with the member states that Parliament stands up for civil rights and calls for a ban on biometric surveillance in public spaces. The parliamentary position will also strengthen innovation and pave the way to make the EU a hotspot for research and innovation on artificial intelligence. Following the liberal position, Parliament is calling for quality standards instead of bans or blanket high-risk classifications for general-purpose AI and generative AI like ChatGPT."

Context:

Renew Europe has had a defining role in shaping not just the Parliament position but also the European approach to AI: Renew Europe was the only political group to have a position paper before the Commission’s proposal, at the beginning of this mandate and many of Renew Europe’s priorities made their way into the proposed text. Our group advocated for the establishment of the Parliament Special Committee on AI (AIDA), which over two years has studied AI from all different perspectives, preparing our work on the file. The recent controversies around the new generative chatGPT system show why this legislation regulating the development and use of AI is highly pressing.

Timeline: 1st trilogue starts 14th of June 2023

please find here our AI podcast (audiofile) with Rapporteur Dragoş Tudorache and Shadow Rappporteur Svenja Hahn. In case you need the unedited footage version for soundbites, please let us know.