Danish Presidency of Council of EU still pushing for regulatory pause in implementation of AI Act

Denmark’s Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Stage Olsen, told Agence Europe on Friday 10 October that the ‘Stop the Clock’ mechanism, the regulatory pause in the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act (see EUROPE 13720/15), was legitimate and welcome, given the “delay” in the process of drawing up standards for the requirements to which high-risk artificial intelligence systems must be subject in the EU, and the aims for legislative simplification.

“We don’t have the right guidelines and standards for companies to comply with, and if they can’t comply, what’s the point? It’s our fault if we’re not ready”, she insisted.

According to the Minister, this break is at “the very heart of what is essential in terms of simplification and reducing burdens for industries”.

A few days earlier, the Center for Democracy and Technology Europe (CDT) published a report on a round-table discussion held on 22 September on the implementation of the regulation and the future simplification package for digital regulations, with NGOs, European regulators and a number of Member States taking part.

Without naming the member countries, the CDT states that some of them have voiced concerns about the delay in the standardisation process and have called for the suspension of high-risk obligations in this context – while stressing that “any pause in this regard should be limited and targeted, as opposed to open-ended”.

The very thorny issue of the ‘Stop the Clock’ mechanism on theAI Act is, according to the organisation, a “vicious circle” that can lead to “Member States delaying the appointment of their national authorities”.

This possibility of pausing certain parts of the AI Regulation is supported by several Member States, including Denmark, but also the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Finland and Portugal.

At this stage, the Commission, through the Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, shows little inclination to reopen the issue (see EUROPE 13673/15).

See the CDT report: https://aeur.eu/f/iwt (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)