The Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has proposed digital simplification measures to Member States at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council held in Luxembourg on Friday 6 June.
During a public session on the subject, the Polish Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Dariusz Standerski, promoted the use of a ‘stop-the-clock’ mechanism to pause or postpone the application of certain parts of the Artificial Intelligence Act (‘AI Act’). This idea stems from the fact that the standards required for the next stage of implementation of the ‘AI Act’ are behind schedule (see EUROPE 13634/7).
It is certain that everything will have to be ready for the next phase of application, acknowledged the European Commission Vice-President responsible for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen. “If we see that standards are not ready in time, we should not rule out postponing some parts of the ‘AI Act’”, she said in response to concerned countries. And she is also insisting that operators need predictability.
The idea of postponing the next stages in the implementation of this legislation would be acceptable to several Member States. The Czech minister, Jan Kavalírek, put forward a specific proposal: “We would like to start a discussion on potentially postponing for two years those parts of the ‘AI Act’ that are not yet in force”. Germany was also open to discussion during the debate.
Denmark, which will take over the Presidency of the EU Council in July, has not adopted a clear position, but has insisted on the need to simplify the rules for operators. “It is high time for us to consider how to simplify. And here, no file should be sacred”, declared Caroline Stage Olsen, the Danish Minister for Digitalisation.
Spain, however, has called for this simplification effort to be actioned to avoid deregulation. “It is not a question of stopping our watches, but of synchronising them”, said the Spanish minister, Óscar López Águeda, in reference to the term that is used by the co-legislators – ‘stop-the-clock’.
In broader terms, the ministers supported the simplification effort and the European Commission’s intention to present an ‘omnibus’ text along these lines in the autumn.
See the document submitted by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council: https://aeur.eu/f/h7w (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)