The European Parliament adopted, by 423 votes in favour, 57 against and 174 abstentions, on Tuesday 16 June, the legislative package aimed at simplifying European Union rules on artificial intelligence.
This vote follows the provisional agreement reached on 7 May on the so-called ‘AI Omnibus’ legislative package, which introduces a new ban on non-consensual ‘nudification’ in the wake of the scandal involving Grok and postpones the entry into force of the obligations applicable to high-risk artificial intelligence systems in order to give the sector time to put in place the necessary standards on the market (see EUROPE 13864/1).
The Patriots for Europe group unsuccessfully tabled a procedural motion seeking to reject approval of the provisional agreement. The motion was rejected by 468 votes to 135, with 51 abstentions.
The amendments proposed by the ECR group were not even put to the vote (see EUROPE 13888/16), as a majority of Members supported the compromise text, already adopted by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on 2 June (see EUROPE 13879/32).
During the debate on this package on Monday 15 June, Piotr Müller (ECR, Polish) had already indicated that his group would abstain, considering that the regulation did not go far enough in terms of simplification and support for the development of artificial intelligence. The Renew Europe, PfE and ESN groups also considered that the proposed simplification measures did not go far enough. Conversely, for the Greens/EFA group and The Left, the EU had “yielded to blackmail”, judging that there was no need to reopen the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). They nevertheless welcomed the new ban on ‘nudification’ applications, which they regard as a significant step forward.
Following the European Parliament’s final green light, the Council of the European Union is expected formally to adopt the text on 29 June. (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)