At the same time as adopting the legislative initiative report by Mady Delvaux (S&D, Luxembourg) on civil law rules on robotics on Thursday 12 January, the members European Parliament’s civil liberties committee backed the somewhat controversial calls that the European Commission give consideration to the possible introduction of a universal basic income.
The idea of putting in place a basic income for all is one that is gaining traction in the EU, particularly in Finland where a nation-wide experiment is currently being carried out. With automation increasingly putting jobs under threat, calls have been made in political and academic circles for incomes no longer to be linked to work. And the European Parliament would seem to be having similar thoughts.
“If truth be told, we are a little surprised ourselves that this was kept in the report”, a Parliamentary source told us, pointing out that the text adopted was, however, much less contentious than the initial version which called for serious consideration to be given to putting in place a basic income. That said, this is more about creating a precedent in Parliament on this issue, the source said.
The universal basic income has elicited strong reservations, going as far as outright opposition from the EPP, the ENF and the ALDE Groups. Jean-Marie Cavada (France), the Liberals shadow rapporteur, is understood to be openly against the inclusion of this idea in the draft report and to have abstained from voting for that reason. On the other hand, the EPP shadow rapporteur Therese Comodini Cachia did not openly express opposition but is believed to have met with disquiet from her group.
The draft text received the unambiguous support of the S&D, GUE/NGL, Greens/EFA and EFDD groups. With regard to this latter group, the support came principally from the MEPs belonging to the 5 Star Movement.
While the draft had no problem in being passed by the committee (17 votes for, 2 against and 2 abstentions), our source recognised that winning majority support in the plenary session vote will be much more difficult.
European robotics agency. The report addresses many other eminently problematic and politically awkward points, including the creation of a European agency devoted to robotics and artificial intelligence. This agency would provide the EU and its member states with “technical, ethical and regulatory expertise” in support of technological developments in robotics. It would be made up of experts in various areas (regulatory, technical, ethical) and should have its own budget, the text says. The EPP and ALDE Groups opposed this.
Robotics charter. Among other innovative proposals, the texts suggest a charter establishing a voluntary ethical code of conduct for robotics engineers which would relate to identification, oversight and compliance with fundamental ethical principles from the design and development phase. This charter, contained in an annex to the legislative initiative, is seen as being principally for researchers, practitioners, users and designers.
Tax on work done by robots. A further major innovation is the possible taxation of work done by robots or a usage and maintenance fee. Such a tax was envisaged in a compromise amendment from the EPP and the S&D. Ultimately, however, the EPP did not support the compromise. That should have spelled the end of the road for the proposal but it managed to sneak in, through an amendment put down by Eleftherios Synadinos (ENF, Greece) which was supported by his group.
Autonomous cars. Just as the European Commission and the member states are getting down to serious work on the arrival of autonomous vehicles (see EUROPE 11679), the MEPs also gave consideration to this developing sector. They called for swift legislative action to avoid regulatory fragmentation.
The draft report will be put to the vote in the plenary session in February. If it is adopted, the Commission will have to either bring forward a legislative proposal or provide good reason for not doing so. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)