According to an article by Politico on 8 October 2020, 14 EU Member States sent an unofficial document to the European Commission asking it not to over-regulate artificial intelligence.

According to the newspaper, this document, initiated by Denmark, involves a significant number of countries, since the bloc includes Ireland and the Scandinavian countries (Finland and Sweden), France and the Benelux countries, Spain and Portugal, as well as Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia. The article states that the signatories express in this letter their willingness to leave open the way for innovation. Instead of restrictive regulation and due to the fast evolution of these technologies, these countries seem to converge in part with the views expressed by some industrial actors who prefer the AI to be governed mostly by existing rules or by flexible new new instruments of soft law, such as voluntary labelling and self-assessments.

The article reminds that the Commission is engaged in a work of regulation of AI since 2018, in order to ensure a protection of Europeans facing the developments of AI applications. The Commission’s intention is to propose an innovative legislation based on the idea of “Trustworthy AI” on the basis of ethical and legal rules aimed at strengthening the confidence of Europeans.

It will be interesting to follow the political impact of this initiative as the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on these issues is expected at the beginning of 2021.