11.11.2024

The View from Brussels #323

News, Publications and Consultations from the Past Week

News CW 45 (04.11.2024 – 10.11.2024)

Digital fairness and the rule of law: Ireland’s designated EU Commissioner Michael McGrath will be responsible for justice and digital fairness and plans to introduce stricter rules against manipulative online practices with the “Digital Fairness Act”. These are intended in particular to protect minors from addictive designs and unfair pricing. McGrath emphasised the need to close gaps in consumer protection without unnecessarily increasing the regulatory burden on companies. (Euractiv.de)​

EU ambitions in AI: The Council of the EU is calling for greater support for AI investments and the creation of a reliable governance system to ensure the EU’s global competitiveness. In addition to technical excellence, the initiative should also take into account sustainability and energy efficiency in AI and high-performance computing. In addition, regular exchanges with Member States are sought to ensure a coherent AI strategy at EU level. (consilium.europa.eu)

Investment gap in AI computing: The EU is struggling with a significant backlog in the field of AI computing and is striving for more computing capacity to remain globally competitive. Despite the establishment of AI factories, the US still has a significant technological advantage, and experts are therefore calling for an ambitious large-scale project that could serve as a “CERN for AI”. Without rapid investment, Europe risks losing its technological sovereignty and innovative strength in the long term. (Euractiv.de)​

Selected Publications from the EP Think Tanks

Ongoing Relevant European Commission Consultations

Selections of the CW 46 (11.11.2024 – 17.11.2024)

Council:

The current preview of the Council’s work for the upcoming weeks can be found found here.

Summit and Ministerial Meetings:

This week, there are no Council meetings of relevance to the Internet industry.

Preparatory Bodies:

An overview of the various Council dates can be found here.

Commission:

The agenda of the current Commission meeting was not available at our time of writing. You can potentially find it on the Commission’s website in the near future.

Parliament:

Plenary Sittings

The agenda for the current plenary sittings week can be found here.

Here you can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament. The calendar of the plenary sittings for 2024 is available here (PDF).

Committees

LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)

The agenda for the current meeting of the LIBE Committee taking place on 12.11.2024 can be found here.

JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)

The agenda for the current meeting of the JURI Committee taking place on 12.11.2024 can be found here.

ITRE Committee (Industry)

The agenda for the current meeting of the ITRE Committee taking place on 12.11.2024 can be found here.

IMCO Committee (Internal Market)

No meeting of the IMCO Committee is scheduled for this week.

CULT Committee (Culture and Education)

No meeting of the CULT Committee is scheduled for this week.

Outlook:

An overview of the following session weeks can be found here. The provisional agenda for the upcoming plenary sittings can be found here.

European Court of Justice

You can find the judicial calendar of the ECJ here.

The View from Brussels