On Thursday 26 July, the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU published a document for members of a high-level working group on competitiveness and growth in order to reflect on how EU governance can be improved for dealing with the challenges of artificial intelligence.
The Presidency has submitted a number of questions to the high representatives of the member states on the working group to set collaboration priorities for coordinating the artificial intelligence plan; - define the role of the different European and national programmes for boosting public and private investment; - organise national action to set up ‘hubs’ for digital innovation based on artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is top of the agenda among the Austrian Presidency’s priorities. In mid-July, the presidency organised an informal meeting entirely devoted to this at minister level (see EUROPE 12063). The presidency says the EU has to be given a ‘holistic’ industrial strategy to tackle the potential of artificial intelligence head-on.
To this end, it wants to clarify the governance structure for industry policy around the European Commission, the member states and competent players. It wants to focus the ‘integrated’ approach on the Competitiveness Council, which would work in tandem with other formations of the Council. The presidency mentions in its document a framework of indicators to establish a monitoring mechanism which it hopes to finalise at the end of its term of office.
The high-level group is expected to meet on 7 September and then for a second time on 8 November to fuel the work of the Competitiveness Council on 29 November, explains the document, and also, more generally, with work on the contents launched by the European Commission a few months ago (see EUROPE 12043, 12009).
The document can be found in English: https://bit.ly/2K61Cn6. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)