On Wednesday 12 September, MEPs argued in favour of a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems, which are “weapons systems lacking human control with regard to critical functions such as target selection and engagement”.
The joint resolution by the Greens/EFA, EPP, ALDE, ELDD, GUE/NGL and S&D Groups was widely adopted (566 votes in favour, 47 against and 73 abstentions). It thus calls on the EU High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy and on the Council to “work on launching international negotiations for a legally binding instrument that bans” such weapons systems.
Pending such an instrument, the High Representative, member states and the European Council must “urgently develop and adopt a common position on autonomous weapons systems that ensures human control over the critical functions during deployment prior to the November 2018 meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons”.
In addition, the Parliament considers it “extremely important to prevent the development and production of weapons systems that lack human control, in particular with regard to critical functions such as target selection and engagement”.
During the debate held the day before, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogerhini had announced that the EU believes the “power to decide over life and death should never be taken out of human hands and given to machines”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)