European legislation on Artificial Intelligence: Renaissance Numérique and AI-Regulation contribute to the debate

The European Commission’s April 2021 proposal for a Regulation aiming at harmonized rules across the EU for AI is a major legal development and the negotiations at the EU level will be particularly interesting and tough.

The first debate between the European Ministers of Telecommunications dedicated to the EU proposed legislation on artificial intelligence (AI Act), will take place this Thursday 14 October. In this context, Renaissance Numérique and the Chair on the Legal and Regulatory Implications of Artificial Intelligence of Grenoble Alpes University are publishing the contribution they submitted to the European Commission on the proposed text. This report follows a high-level seminar held by Renaissance Numérique, the Chair on the Legal and Regulatory Implications of AI, and Facebook, on 10 June 2021, which gathered about forty actors involved in AI at the European level – legal experts, engineers, representatives of national and European public institutions, civil society and companies, and researchers. This event aimed at questioning the relevance of the proposed regulation on artificial intelligence and its quest for a certain balance. This report draws on the many ideas and opinions expressed during the seminar.

Download the report [english version] [version française]

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems bear many opportunities for the European economy and society. They also raise significant challenges for the European Union, whether in terms of its capacity to innovate – and, therefore, be competitive in this domain at the international level – or in terms of its capacity to protect European citizens from the risks these technologies may entail for their rights and liberties. When it comes to regulation, those challenges are particularly vivid. Those technologies, just like their use cases, are diverse, evolutionary, and unpredictable. It is in this perspective that the European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has started working on ways to support the development of artificial intelligence systems in the European Union. This contribution relates to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) and amending certain Union legislative acts, presented on 21 April 2021.

It was cowritten by think tank Renaissance Numérique and the Chair on the Legal and Regulatory Implications of AI of Grenoble Alpes University’s Multidisciplinary Institute for Artificial Intelligence (MIAI). It is in line with previous contributions by the co-signatories on the European Commission’s White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, such as the Final Report on the high-level workshop on facial recognition in the draft EU AI Regulation published by the Chair on the Legal and Regulatory Implications of AI in May 2021.

Our contribution is available here:

English version

French version

The contribution has also been published on the Renaissance Numérique website.


Various relevant articles are also available here:

Renaissance Numérique:

Facial Recognition: Embodying European values

Digital Markets Act: A revolution or a legal contradiction?

AI-Regulation Chair:

Facial Recognition in the Draft European AI Regulation: Final Report on the High-Level Workshop Held on April 26, 2021

Facial Recognition in the Draft AI Regulation: Useful Materials

Pre-Market Requirements, Prior Authorisation and Lex Specialis: Novelties and Logic in the Facial Recognition-Related Provisions of the Draft AI Regulation

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