On Monday 18 February, after a public discussion, the European Ministers responsible for Competitiveness approved conclusions that recognise the importance of artificial intelligence 'Made in Europe'. Despite this unanimous support, however, it seems that some countries, such as Ireland, will not meet the mid-2019 deadline for adopting their national strategies.
In 2018, the European Commission published two communications to stimulate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe in order to bridge the gap between the EU and China and the United States. The first communication, published in April 2018, identifies the main projects to be carried out at European level (see EUROPE 12009) while the second, published in December 2018, aims to generate at least €20 billion in private and public investment by the end of 2020 (see EUROPE 12155).
It is in this context that the 28 Ministers for Competitiveness held a round table discussion and adopted conclusions on artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 12189).
Status of the work and additional measures to be planned
During the round table, each delegation was invited to comment on the progress of work undertaken at national level and on the additional measures needed at European level.
While the EU's coordinated plan encourages Member States to have a national strategy by mid-2019, only France, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Germany currently have such a programme. The Czech Republic announced that it would present its strategy in spring 2019, Austria in August, while Ireland spoke of the "end of the year". Slovakia indicated that its own was in the process of being adopted.
Regarding additional measures, let us mention, for example, Malta's intervention which called for "more flexibility to respond to changes, including in the field of State aid in order to develop short-term solutions". The Czech Republic advocated innovative financing instruments, such as participatory financing or public-private partnerships. France, for its part, insisted that prohibitions of principles should not be introduced, which could have deleterious effects on the development of industry, the defence industry and the industrial and technological base of defence.
It should be recalled that the High Level Group on Artificial Intelligence is due to submit a final version of its guidelines on ethics in artificial intelligence in March, as well as policy and investment recommendations in May.
Investments, R&D and technological excellence
The ministerial round table resulted in the adoption of the conclusions prepared by the Romanian Presidency of the Council on the coordinated AI plan.
As anticipated (see EUROPE 12189), this text emphasises the importance of investment, R&D and technological excellence. It also calls for a review of legislation where appropriate, in line with the Better Regulation approach. This is to take into account the challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, including issues such as security, privacy, and responsibility as well as decisions made and actions taken without human interaction.
For the rest, the draft text recognises the need to strengthen the fundamental capacities of artificial intelligence in the EU, notably data resources—trusted mechanisms for data exchange, such as virtual data warehouses and algorithm libraries. It also emphasises the need to implement specific actions at the EU level to keep AI researchers and specialists in Europe, in addition to national measures.
See conclusions: https://bit.ly/2T5H4mW. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)