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On the negotiations with the UK on the future relationship, European Council President Charles Michel and the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier outlined that the EU is ready to negotiate 24/7 to find compromises on level playing field, governance and fisheries, based on legal texts. However, the UK government must give guarantees, not only words: “What’s the point of signing an international agreement, if it is not implemented in full?” asked Michel.

Member states coordinate better with each other to tackle pandemic

Charles Michel and Maroš Šefčovič reported on decisions taken to improve coordination at EU level to combat the second wave of the pandemic. They also updated MEPs on member states’ efforts to find an agreement on the Climate Law by the end of the year and reported on plans to step up the relationship between the EU and Africa.

Most political group speakers welcomed the firm position taken by the EU27 and by Michael Barnier to achieve a level playing field and to avoid social and environmental dumping in the future relationship with the UK.

Referring to EP President Sassoli’s statement, they criticised EU leaders for dragging their feet on climate protection and on the EU long-term budget, which must reflect the urgent need for common investment in education, research, health, digital and green transition without putting an undue burden on future generations.

Listen to individual statements by clicking on hyperlinks below

Opening statements by European Council President Charles Michel, Commission VP Maroš Šefčovič and the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier

Political group speakers Siegfried Mureşan (EPP, RO), Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, ES), Dacian Cioloş (RE, RO), Nicolas Bay (ID, FR), Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, DE), Derk Jan Eppink (ECR, NL), Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, EL),

Closing statements by Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President and Charles MICHEL, Council

In his speech, Mr Maijoor focused on how retail investors and asset management are the pillars of a successful Capital Markets Union (CMU). It addresses topics such as investor protection and transparency, financial literacy and the role of pensions in the CMU. During his address Mr. Maijoor stated the following:

• “A careful assessment should be made of the proposal to reform the MiFID client categories. MiFID already provides for the possibility for the most experienced retail clients to opt-up to a professional client status and waive some of the protections from which retail investors benefit. Some propose adding another category of clients, which in my view may increase the complexity of the framework and would risk undermining appropriate investor protection levels. If there would be a wish to provide some relief for experienced retail clients, I would suggest analysing the very criteria defining the status of retail and professional clients on request and consider any potential enhancement there first.”

• “I hope that the European Commission can find a way, together with Council and EP, to move forward as soon as possible the technical proposals to improve the PRIIPS KID that the three Boards of the European Supervisory Authorities voted on earlier this year. I am convinced that the proposals would improve the document for all stakeholders involved, such as simpler future performance scenarios, the introduction of past performance information, and the alignment of costs and charges information between PRIIPS and MIFID.”

EIOPA has launched a program of targeted training on insurance supervision for 17 national competent authorities.

The training will enhance supervisory capacity of insurance national competent authorities to reinforce high-quality and effective supervision, the protection of policyholders and beneficiaries and financial stability. The training will help to promote a common supervisory culture and enable experts and supervisors in national authorities to implement the necessary practices and tools to supervise the compliance with Solvency II requirement.

The training is carried out in the context of EU technical support coordinated by the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM). 

The European Parliament is among the first institutions to put forward recommendations on what AI rules should include with regards to ethics, liability and intellectual property rights. These recommendations will pave the way for the EU to become a global leader in the development of AI. The Commission legislative proposal is expected early next year.

Ethics framework for AI

The legislative initiative by Iban García del Blanco (S&D, ES) urges the EU Commission to present a new legal framework outlining the ethical principles and legal obligations to be followed when developing, deploying and using artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies in the EU including software, algorithms and data.

It was adopted with 559 votes in favour, 44 against, and 88 abstentions.

Future laws should be made in accordance with several guiding principles, including: a human-centric and human-made AI; safety, transparency and accountability; safeguards against bias and discrimination; right to redress; social and environmental responsibility; and respect for privacy and data protection.

High-risk AI technologies, such as those with self-learning capacities, should be designed to allow for human oversight at any time. If a functionality is used that would result in a serious breach of ethical principles and could be dangerous, the self-learning capacities should be disabled and full human control should be restored.

Liability for AI causing damage

The legislative initiative by Axel Voss (EPP, DE) calls for a future-oriented civil liability framework, making those operating high-risk AI strictly liable for any resulting damage. A clear legal framework would stimulate innovation by providing businesses with legal certainty, whilst protecting citizens and promoting their trust in AI technologies by deterring activities that might be dangerous.

The rules should apply to physical or virtual AI activity that harms or damages life, health, physical integrity, property, or that causes significant immaterial harm if it results in “verifiable economic loss”. While high-risk AI technologies are still rare, MEPs believe that their operators should hold insurance similar to that used for motor vehicles.

The legislative initiative was adopted with 626 votes in favour, 25 against, and 40 abstentions.

Intellectual property rights

The report by Stéphane Séjourné (Renew Europe, FR) makes clear that EU global leadership in AI requires an effective intellectual property rights system (IPR) and safeguards for the EU’s patent system to protect innovative developers, while stressing that this should not come at the expense of human creators’ interests, nor the European Union’s ethical principles.

MEPs believe it is important to distinguish between AI-assisted human creations and AI-generated creations. They specify that AI should not have legal personality; thus, ownership of IPRs should only be granted to humans. The text looks further into copyright, data collection, trade secrets, the use of algorithms and deep fakes.

The report was adopted with 612 votes in favour, 66 against, and 12 abstentions.