The trenches of legislation in Brussels

The legislative process in Brussels

Anyone who has read our article on the progress of the AI Act proposal will have seen that there are many different parties involved in making a piece of regulation at the EU level. The proposal was initially created by the European Commission. That is where the entire proposal was conceived and designed. Now the European Parliament and the Council of the EU must also agree to the proposal, then the proposal becomes a law. However, both the Council and the Parliament have the possibility to propose changes. For the Parliament it then comes down to dealing with the proposal in different committees, each with a different focus area.

One of the European Parliament's committees is the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA). This committee has been tasked with taking a broad look at how the EU should deal with AI and what the effects of AI will be on the EU. The committee has addressed this by writing short working papers. In total, it has published 11 working papers. In these, the commission focuses on a specific sector or social issue. A position is then formulated for the specific topic with the help of external experts. Sometimes the committee also collaborates with other committees. In fact, there are often already committees for the topics covered by AIDA.

The committee has summarized its findings in a report. This summarizes the effects of AI on the EU. It also makes recommendations to counteract or remedy potential problems. This report was presented to Parliament, which voted to support the findings and recommendations.