Negotiators from the EU Council and the European Parliament will meet again, on Wednesday 6 December at 3pm, for a potential final round of interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on legislation concerning artificial intelligence (‘AI Act’).
While some Member States were sceptical about the possibility of concluding the dossier on this occasion, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council – whose revised negotiating mandate was approved by the Member States on 1 December (see EUROPE 13306/5) – displayed a degree of confidence.
“In our opinion, we are completely in line. (...) Sometimes there are a few tensions, because not everything is included in the first draft of the text. We have aligned our positions and we have sufficient flexibility to discuss with Parliament”, said Spain’s Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas.
The European Parliament and the EU Council will have to reach agreement on the question of foundation models. This point has polarised discussions between Member States in recent weeks, since France, Germany and Italy announced that they did not support the gradual approach advocated by the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, based on stricter criteria for high-impact models. The three Member States, for their part, wanted codes of conduct to be put in place and no sanctions to be imposed in the first phase (see EUROPE 13296/5).
“Above all, we don’t know today what AI will offer next year. (...) We should answer the questions that we can answer today in the area of regulation. But we can’t give definitive answers to questions to which we don’t know the answers. And that’s where the code of conduct helps us, where the possibility of self-regulation helps us. And we can adapt at any time at international and European level”, insisted the German Minister for Digital Affairs, Volker Wissing.
“It is important that we Europeans are able to develop our own AI models. Those who design the technology have more impact than those who regulate it”, commented the French Minister for the Digital Transition, Jean-Noël Barrot, not ruling out the possibility that another trilogue might be necessary.
“The regulatory framework can also be supplemented by codes of conduct, which would not replace the rules. In the event of non-compliance, there will be sanctions “, said Italy’s Secretary of State for the Digital Transition, Alessio Butti.
“The important thing is to reach a political agreement”, summarised Ms Artigas, pointing out that, whatever the content of the agreement, work would still have to be carried out at a technical level to finalise the dossier. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)