During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (17-20 May 2021), MEPs debate on the digital future of Europe: digital single market and use of artificial intelligence (AI) for European consumers: opening statement by Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

consumers' protection (T)

use of robotics and artificial intelligence (T)

CLUNE, Deirdre (EPP, IE)

digital Europe programme 2021-2027 (T)

Digital future of Europe: digital single market and use of AI for European consumers: opening statement by Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, Dear Commissioner, shipping the digital future, removing barriers to the functioning of the single market and improving the use of artificial intelligence for consumers that we've worked on for a number of months now. And I want to thank my fellow shadows and their offices and those committees who have contributed by way of opinion to this report.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, So we've had strong cooperation once resulting in a balanced report that identifies clearly areas we believe can and should be acted on to improve the functioning of our single market in the digital area in the last 12 months. And more we've demonstrated have demonstrated to us the value of digitalisation and how it can contribute to bringing people together, connecting businesses to consumers and connecting business to business.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, But we can do more to make our single market work better for citizens and businesses, to make European SMEs, micro businesses and larger companies more competitive and improve their potential to compete globally. As always, we need to remove unnecessary and unjustified barriers that do occur at national level and emphasised the need for a strong European approach that gives certainty to enterprise.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, European companies should engage with an EU approach to regulation and not to have to engage with 27 member state approaches. This certainty will encourage entrepreneurs and others who want to expand and established in the in the European Union to know that this was a place where they can do this. They know for sure what's expected of them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, There will be no barriers, no borders, just a market of 450 million citizens and the support of European regulation that provides legal clarity, law, European regulation that is trustworthy, fully compliant with fundamental rights, consumer protection rules, data protection rules, and is non-discriminatory. These are the traits Europe has established for itself as a leader and as a leader worldwide. And the traits we want to embed in our digital rules also.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, And of course, this report or this approach is always essential for our public services and that support our citizens regardless of where they reside. As we continue to deal with covid and the fallout from the pandemic, as we take as we make face our ambition of implementing the EU green deal, as we reorganise our health care services, digitalisation, emerging technologies such as AI can today and they will contribute to reaching these objectives.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, It is really encouraging to see the 25 percent of the of the EU rescue fund is going to be earmarked for digital and we must not waver from that. Funding for SMEs supporting innovation and tech entrepreneurs is vital if we are to facilitate development, the development of an EU tax base that we so badly need.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, If we look at our global competitors in the sector like the US or China, we can see that more private sector investment is encouraged there than there is here in the European Union. Yes, we have our investor, you, a Horizon EU and other programmes and these are enormously successful. But we must also introduce policies that leverage private sector investment in terms of venture capitalists or see capital, private sector.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, We need that private sector investment to ensure that we don't have scale up for sale here in Europe. We don't have scale ups will start start-ups that will scale up in third countries. We want EU successes. And I would really welcome the commission's recent proposals to support artificial intelligence through regulation proposals designed to encourage their use and and importantly, to encourage consumer confidence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, AI has enormous potential to address many of the challenges that we face today in the health care sector, in agriculture and transport, in developing our smart cities. The list is endless and it does go on. But AI is not without its drawbacks or risks, such as lack of transparency or traceability or lack of human oversight. By decision making, these need to be addressed through regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, We already have our data protection rules, privacy rules, non-discrimination rules, and we need to protect consumers as we do with product safety and liability. And we need that same protection online as offline. But there are gaps and these need to be addressed. We need to inform consumers on the use of artificial intelligence where it is being used.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, When they are engaging with it, consumers have a right to be adequately informed in a timely and easily accessible manner where they exist and the possible outcomes, how the system is established is checked, how it can be contested and how it can be corrected. This is a very important position that we have reflected in our report today because we believe that these criteria are essential if we want to encourage consumer confidence and in turn would feed into an ecosystem where we can allow AI products and technologies to develop.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, And there are risks with artificial intelligence. I don't deny that in some areas, operations, some areas of operation, the risks will be higher than in others. And we want to see a risk based regulatory approach that would regulate the highest, highest risk regulation and cost consequence for lower risk would have less regulation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, There must be the possibility also to prohibit harmful or discriminatory practise. We don't want to see a binary approach to risk a risk evaluation that could come quickly obsolete, but rather a forward looking approach. And that is application that is not application specific, but that gives certainty to developers, certainty to investors and indeed confidence to consumers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Deirdre CLUNE (EPP, IE), rapporteur, So artificial intelligence and the future regulation that we are going to be dealing with in this house is important. It will send out a message that Europe can be a leader in this area as we were in GDPR. There are gaps, I think another ideal opportunity to lead internally, but also to lead on a global basis and how we can deal with a AI and boost its confidence both for consumers and for business. Thank you.