Activities of Josianne CUTAJAR related to 2020/2216(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Digital future of Europe: digital single market and use of AI for European consumers (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on shaping the digital future of Europe: removing barriers to the functioning of the digital single market and improving the use of AI for European consumers
Amendments (29)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights that European leadership can be a reality; notes that a second wave of digitalisation lies ahead; underlines that a common EU approach can make Europe the most innovative region in the world by 2030; stresses that digital revolution must contribute to sustainable development and benefit all citizens, while balancing the economic, ethical and environmental dimensions; further recognises that AI is an engine for sustainable transformation;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Demands that digital connectivity should be a key element to address; calls to the Commission to urgently address the existing digital divide and analyse the impact of digital technologies with regards to unequal access to technology, on the depopulation phenomenon and disparities in connectivity across the Member States;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. The shaping of a fair digital sector must go hand-in-hand with educational aspects, socialisation, fair working conditions, work-life balance, democracy, good governance and strong public services;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Highlights that science, innovation and R&D will be indispensable to attain the objectives of inclusive digital transformation and European digital sovereignty;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recognises that the EU has an enormously strong SME sector; recalls that this second wagve of digitalisation could lead to a strong industrial development of SMEs; reinforces the need to accelerate the digitalisation of SMEs and help them overcome barriers in adopting AI applications; calls for a goal of 500 digital unicorns within 10 years;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Recognizes that the less digitally mature sectors are facing both internal and external barriers to the adoption of the AI that need to be clearly identified; stresses that for the most part, and especially for SMEs, barriers to the adoption of AI are similar to those hindering digitalisation;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Emphasises that the AI development in the EU needs to remain "human-centric", people should always be responsible for decision-making; stresses that when citizens are interacting with an automated system they should always have the possibility of human control in order to ensure that an automated decision can be verified and corrected; stresses that in order for citizens to understand, trust, examine and oversight the decision made, the transparency of AI systems and the logic of the algorithms is utmost important when the technology is used in public services;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2 c. Stresses that the successful development and deployment of AI in Europe is dependent on increasing the availability of high-quality data; highlights that using biased data sets can inadvertently lead to biased AI applications and notes especially the risk for reproducing gender, cultural, ethnic, social, disability or sexual orientation biases; underlines the need to acknowledge and address all bias in data- based systems both in their development and use;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Emphasises that the COVID crisis provides an opportunity to speed up digitalisation; calls for financial incentives for SMEs that want to enter new markets; recognises the concern that large firms have better capabilities to take advantage of the opportunities provided by AI which could lead to overconcentration in the market of large firms and multinationals;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Recognises that the EU is lagging behind in the AI global competition; emphasises that the focus on services for citizens and businesses creates a global market segment in which the EU can lead, respecting its structural principles and values , including our Digital Identity, which are focusing on upholding fundamental rights, strong ethical aspects, legal safeguards and liability, thus protecting our democratic societies and citizens;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Calls for Commission to develop innovative and proportionate rules for a trustworthy digital society, ensuring it should be fully inclusive, fair and accessible for all;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3 c. Highlights that we need a European legal framework on AI, robotics and related technologies that addresses ethical principles and fundamental rights in their development, deployment and use; notes that such framework should agree on ethical and technical standards to govern the use of new technologies, such as AI;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3 d. Stresses that AI products and services may deliver different experiences to different consumers; highlights the importance of gender and ethnic diversity in digital careers to achieve digital products and services that fully address and represent the diverse set of experiences and needs of European consumers;
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for massive investment in clusters of excellence; calls to the Commission to facilitate the development of digital innovation hubs across the Member States in order to ensure the capacity-building, sharing of best practices in AI development and deployment and to mobilise the research and innovation along the entire value chain; recognises that such digital innovation hubs can also contribute to attract the access to talent and research capabilities in AI;
Amendment 79 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Calls to the Commission to initiate cross-sectoral dialogues, giving priority to healthcare, rural administrations and public service operators in order to present an action plan to facilitate the development, research and adoption of AI applications;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7 b. Calls for more investment in research, innovation, science and the scientific community, which is the driving force of the technological and digital revolution;
Amendment 85 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Demands measures to end to the brain drain and attract the best minds to the EU; considers that the new Skills Agenda for Europe must address the challenges of adapting and raising new qualifications that reinforce the green and digital transition, including ethical aspects of AI;
Amendment 87 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Recognizes the need to protect the citizens and workers potentially at risk of displacement due to AI; calls to the Commission to develop strategies to manage digital transition by supporting reskilling programs, improving professional education, ensuring greater access to talent and provide long-life trainings for the current and future workforce with particular focus on SMEs; notes that education and transparency of new data driven technologies is important for the workforce to be able to understand, and be part of, the fair implementation; stresses the right of employees to know where and how their data is collected; Calls on social partners to explore the potential of digitalisation, data and AI to increase sustainable productivity, improve the well-being of their workforces while respecting workers’ rights as well as investing in awareness rising and digital literacy schemes;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Stresses that 90% of jobs require basic digital skills while 42% of EU citizens lack basic digital skills1a; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single- market/en/digital-economy-and-society- index-desi
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 c (new)
Paragraph 8 c (new)
8 c. Calls for promoting the creation and expansion of digital knowledge and support the research programmes and networks created among European universities in order to help European businesses and entrepreneurs attract the best talent and become the vanguard of digital innovation worldwide. Skills shortages and mismatches can be prevented by improving and facilitating connections between the education and training systems and the needs of companies to innovate;
Amendment 96 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 d (new)
Paragraph 8 d (new)
8 d. Stresses that in order for new digitalisation wave to be successful, one of the crucial challenges is to provide sufficient digital skills for European digital sector; recalls that women are under-represented at all levels in the digital sector in Europe, from students (32% at Bachelor, Master or equivalent level)up to top academic positions (15%) and that the gap is largest in ICT specialist skills and employment, where only 18% are women in the EU2a _________________ 2a https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single- market/en/news/digital-economy- scoreboard-shows-women-europe-are- less-likely-work-or-be-skilled-ict
Amendment 97 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recognises that AI deployment is key to European competitiveness in the digital era; highlights that to facilitate the uptake of AI in Europe, a common European approach is needed to avoid internal market fragmentation; calls for promoting AI technologies aimed at improving public services with collective benefits; stresses that AI can help to break down the silos by linking and streamlining public services to improve administration for the benefit of citizens and businesses as well as provide real- time data bases for services and decision making;
Amendment 105 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. States that increased digitalisation will bring new energy needs but also contribute to bring efficiency with providing better understanding of processes and leading to their improvements; recognises that AI can help to identify where energy improvements can be made for energy and costs savings; furthermore AI can better help to measure energy efficiency, improve energy management and access to renewable storage;
Amendment 116 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Considers that access to big data is a key for the development of AI; calls for a new approach to data regulation; underlines the importance of level playing field and EU wide interoperability when using the exponentially increasing amount of the industrial and public data; recalls that success of the Union’s data economy as well as AI development and deployment primary depends on the wider ICT ecosystem, closing the digital divide, upskilling and reskilling of workforce, developing the IoT, fibre, quantum, block;
Amendment 120 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Recalls that access to data must result from a transparent trade-off with citizens; recognises that when citizens authorize the use of the data, receiving as counterpart better services of general interest and a more competitive offer from the market; states that transparency and monitoring of the use of data must be ensured;
Amendment 134 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Warns against overregulating AI; recalls that regulation must be balanced, agile, permanently evaluated, and based on soft regulation except for high-risk areas; recognises that a regulatory approach to the definition of risk focusing only on high-risk sectors (healthcare, transport, energy and parts of the public sector) and high-risk uses or purposes can lead to potential loopholes;
Amendment 139 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Notes that data-driven technologies, including AI are becoming the dominant force in the digital economy; states that any regulatory framework will need to address the question of production and use, interoperability, access to and sharing of data, reskilling of workforce and data management, in particularly SMEs;
Amendment 143 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Supports the creation of "ecosystem of trust" as stated in the Commission's White paper on AI that should give citizens sufficient confidence to take up AI applications and provide to companies and public organisation the legal certainty to innovate in AI deployment;
Amendment 153 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Highlights that EU continues its international cooperation on AI with like- minded countries and global players with the approach of EU rules and values; calls on the Commission to closely monitor international level playing field in AI development and deployment;