During today’s meeting, the IMCO Committee adopted, by a vote of 32 to 15, an opinion drafted by PiS MEP Kosma Złotowski calling for the rejection of the draft directive on civil liability for artificial intelligence.
Kosma Złotowski, the IMCO rapporteur, called the proposal “premature and unnecessary,” arguing that companies should first be given time to adapt to existing regulations—including the EU’s AI Act and the amended Product Liability Directive.
“The AILD proposal was not received with enthusiasm by either the Council or the European Parliament. Work on the Commission’s proposal has not progressed since its publication in 2022. At present, this proposal seems even more pointless. Commissioner Virkkunen was right to withdraw it. Today’s vote in IMCO confirms that there is no majority in the European Parliament in favor of such regulations. The updated Product Liability Directive and the Artificial Intelligence Act provide a sufficient legal framework for the development of safe artificial intelligence in the EU. The world is changing. Either we learn to play by the new rules, or we will become a technological wasteland. “The adoption of my opinion signals that Parliament is committed to deregulation and wants to compete with the United States and China in the field of innovation, not bureaucracy,” Kosma Złotowski explained.
The draft published by the European Commission in 2022 was repeatedly criticized as an example of yet another round of unnecessary regulations that could weaken the position of European companies and become a barrier to the development not only of new technologies but also of the EU’s single market. As a result, in its announced work plan for 2025, the European Commission indicated that it may withdraw from work on this directive, but a final decision on the matter has not yet been made.
