Activities of Liesje SCHREINEMACHER 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 (30)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the European Union needs to take urgent steps to close the gap with the US and China to be at the forefront of ensuring a competitive data- driven global economy and to become a leader in setting digital standards;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. RecogniStresses the importance of a fully functioning digital single market and the usebenefits of AI, robotics and related technologies for EU citizens, since they help to effectively tackle the challenges societies face, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Maintains that SMEs need to be supported in their digital transformation due to their limited resources; invites, therefore,calls on the Commission to pursue a fitness check for SMEs before publishintroducing legislation and to keep administrative burdens to a minimum by, inter alia, developing standards; asks the Commission to pay specific attention to the needs of start- and scale- ups, which play an important role in the uptake of new technologies in Europe;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. SNotes the risks of incompatibility between approaches of different trading partners when it comes to the regulation of digital trade; strongly supports multilateral solutions for digital trade rules and calls for the plurilateral WTO negotiations on e- commerce to be concluded as a matter of urgency; regrets that, in the absence of global rules, EU companies are faced with non-tariff barriers in digital trade such as unjustified data localisation and mandatory technology transfer requirements; supports making the WTO moratorium on electronic transmissions permanent; calls for the EU to further work with partners, for instance within the OECD and WTO, to set global standards for AI, in the interest of reducing trade barriers and promoting trustworthy AI in line with the EU's values;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Underlines that true access to justice for SMEs requires expertise in the area of law and technology, which is scarce and expensive; calls upon the Commission to integrate the promotion of legal technological expertise in Europe in its digital skills strategy;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. NStresses the centrality of data flows to digital trade, and that apart from being a means of production, data itself has become a tradable asset; notes that data access and processing are often indispensable to providing competitive digital services, notably in AI; calls on the Commission to adopt digital trade rules that increase the competitiveness of EU business and facilitate the free transfer of data flowsflow of non- personal data across borders while respecting EU data protection rules; highlights that in line with the GDPR, personal data can be transferred to third countries via adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses and binding corporate rules; calls for data protection considerations to be raised in future trade agreements, with the aim to facilitate the adequacy decision process with trading partners;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Points out that the digital single market and AI are diverse and subject to quick and dynamic developments; urges the Commission to base proposals and initiatives on the right balance avoiding on the one hand an one-size-fits-all approach and on the other hand aeveloping rapidly; highlights the importance therefore of a flexible, future-proof and proportionate European approach; underlines that a new framework should prevent fragmentation of the single market through different national approaches on the other, whilst avoiding becoming one-size-fits-all approach;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights that a new regulatory framework for AI is needed in order to deal with the potential risks of autonomous behaviour and to maximise the trust of and the benefit for users; invites the Commission toto maximise the trust of users in the technology; invites the Commission to present a thorough impact assessment which identifies legal gaps in existing laws, followed by a proposeal for a risk- based and innovation- friendly legislative framework for AI that focuses on identifying and closing gaps within existing legislation and beingis coherent with the existing sector-specific legislation;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is of the firm view that the definitions of ‘AI’ and ‘high-risk’ should be future- proof to ensurare crucial to provide legal clarity forto consumers and businesses and should consider human oversight for high-risk AI applications;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is convinced that existing legislation needs to be adapted tomodernized to adjust to the introduction of new technologies; asks the Commission to adjust inter alia the Product Liability Directive1 , in particular by redefining the terms ‘product’ and ‘defect’ and considering adjustments to the concept of ‘burden of proof’, which should mirror the modifications to the General Product Safety Directive2 ; _________________ 1 OJ L 210, 7.8.1985, p.29. 2 OJ L 11, 15.1.2002, p. 4.
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the conclusion of the rules-based Asian Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which deepens the economic integration of the region; regrets, however, the lack of a robust sustainable development chapter in the RCEP; believes that the conclusion of the RCEP should encourage the EU to help set global rules for the digital economy; supports in this regard the establishment of an EU-US Trade and Technology Council and the work on a Transatlantic AI Agreement to help facilitate trade and the development of compatible rules and common standards in digital trade; calls on both parties to use the momentum of the new Biden administration to begin working on these issues urgently, and to find an agreement at the OECD on fair taxation for the digital economy;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Asks the Commission to follow-up on the recommendations of the European Parliament regarding the introduction of a new liability framework for AI- operators and following the results of the impact assessment, consider introducing a strict liability regime for high-risk AI- systems that would guarantee effective protection of consumers across the EU;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Underlines the role of digital trade and the use of blockchain for instance in facilitating access to global value chains for SMEs and contributing to women’s economic empowerment. making cross-border trade processes and commercial transactions more efficient and less costly; Highlights in particular the benefits these could bring to contributing to women’s economic empowerment and also using blockchain to facilitate due diligence for companies; Calls for Digital Trade to be a pillar of the EU's new Trade Strategy; Further calls for Digital Trade Chapters to be included in all future FTAs;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Outlines that society, including consumers, should benefit from the responsible development and deployment of AI which serves the good of society; asks the Commission, therefore, to define ethical rulenorms for the development, deployment and use of AI, robotics and related technologies taking into account the principles of better regulation; believes that these norms should guarantee the effective protection of European citizen's fundamental and consumer rights;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Underlines that, for the traifunctioning of the digital single market and the development of AI, the free flow of data within the digital single market is essential and this should be underpinned by the appropriate contractual rule, as well as with third countries, is essential; welcomes Commission’s commitment to build a genuine European single market for data, allowing businesses to start up and scale up, to innovate and compete or cooperate on fair terms;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission to increase support for key enablers of the digital economyaim at an innovation-friendly regulatory environment for enablers of the digital economy and to strengthen the financial and institutional support for the European digital economy in close coordination with Member States and stakeholders;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to supportFirmly believes that the European Union should be a frontrunner globally when it comes to the development of AI, and at the same time, should work closely with like-minded countries to coordinate efforts internationally; Welcomes in this respect the ambition to introduce A Global Digital Cooperation Strategy and a Transatlantic AI Agreement; Calls on the Commission to promote the development of international standardization processes to govern the use of AI;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Highlights that consumers are already benefiting from strong data protection rules such as the GDPR3 and ePrivacy Directive4 ; appreciates that the Commission foresees measures to empower individuals to exercise their rights, which must at least partly be based on civil law; _________________ 3 OJ L 119 4.5.2016, p. 1. 4 OJ L 201, 31.7.2002, p.37.
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to ensure wider coordination of investment in the NextGenerationEU recovery plan; calls on the Commission to propose concrete actions within this plan to support key digital enablers and high impact technologies in the EU;
Amendment 63 #
11. Asks the Commission to ensure that users are properly informed and that their rights arwhen they interact with AI, about the data that it collects and for which use; underlines that their rights offline should also be effectively guaranteed online when they interact with automated decision-making systems and; stresses that automatic decision- making systems shouldo not generate unfairly biased outputs leading to discriminatory decisions for consumers in the single market;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to work to position the EU as leader in the adoption and standardisation process for new technologies; highlights the need to work with industry and also with international partners on setting global standards; in this regard, welcomes the Commission’s proposal from December 2020 for a new transatlantic agenda, which highlights the importance of cooperating with the US on technology and standards;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Urges the Commission to ensure a strong protection for users’ civil law rightof the rights of users in the forth-coming proposal for a Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly in order to protect, inter alia, the freedom of expression and the freedom to provide services, and to protect users fromagainst harmful micro-targeting;
Amendment 75 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. OutlinStresses that it is unacceptable that consumers are exposed to unsafe products and therefore increased responsibilities for online marketplaces are needed; askscalls upon the Commission to set up clear rules forify the responsibility of content hosting platforms for goods sold or advertised on them in the DSA proposal in order to inter alia close the legal gap in which the buyers failed to obtain the satisfaction to which he or she is entitled according to the law or the contract for the supply of goods for example because of the inability to identify the primary sellerto ensure that consumers can effectively exercise their right to redress; Proposes that this should include an obligation for digital services from third countries that are active in the European single market to establish a legal representative within the European Union;
Amendment 78 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that large platforms with significant network effects resulting from for example the data that they possess could act as de facto ‘online gatekeepers’ of the digital economy and urges the Commission to analyse the impact that the power of these large platforms have on the rights of consumers and SMEs., which creates unfair competition disproportionately impacting SMEs; urges the Commission to introduce measures to protect the rights of consumers and SMEs by restoring the level playing field in the internal market;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Believes the regulatory framework needs to build public trust in AI while allowing companies to develop automated systems without losing the confidence of their customersupport the development of trustworthy AI systems and should ensure high consumer protection standards in order to strengthen consumer’s confidence in AI enabled products; believes also that the regulatory framework should ensure transparency, and provide for clear communication of the relevant requirements to both consumers and regulatory authorities;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. cCalls on the Commission and the Member States to make use of innovative regulatory tools such as ‘regulatory sandboxes’ to help provide a clear path to scale-up for start-ups and small companies, regardless oftaking the risk profile and the possible welfare gain of their product into account; believes that these tools can help encourage innovation without any detriment to consumer protection;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Believes that the use of AI in a high-risk AIcontext should be limited to specific and clearly warranted purposes, in full respect of the applicable law and subject to transparency obligations; underlines that thisonly a clear and legally certain legislative framework will be decisive for ensuring public trust and support for the necessity and proportionality of the deployment of such technologies; calls on the Commission to carefully consider whether there are certain use cases, situations or practices for which specific technical standards, including underlying algorithms, should be adopted; deems necessary, should such technical standards be adopted, that these are regularly reviewed and re-evaluated, given the fast pace of technological development;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Calls on the Member States to encourage and support the establishment of specialised review boards for AI products and services Commission and the Member States to ensure close cooperation and mutual recognition of decisions when enforcing the Member States to assess the potential benefits and potential harm stemming from high-risk, impactful AI-based projectsregulatory framework in order to prevent a fragmented Single Market;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Highlights the importance of education and research for AI; calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish an EU centre of excellence for AI; considers that this should be done with the involvement of universities, companies and research institusupports the establishment of the European Network of Artificial Intelligence Excellence Centres; believes that this network should help to strengthen the exchange of knowledge on AI, support AI related talent within the EU and attract new talent, foster the cooperations; believes that such a centre can help totween science and AI developers as well as provide specialised training and development for regulatory authorities;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Calls on the Commission to update the existing liabiliproduct liability and product safety framework in order to address new challenges posed by emerging digital technologies such as artificial intelligence;