The European Parliament paves the way for less bureaucracy in AI – eco now calls for consistent implementation, greater legal certainty and innovation-friendly regulation.
Commenting on the vote on 18 March in the European Parliament’s lead committees, IMCO and LIBE, on a position regarding the AI Omnibus, Oliver Süme, Chairman of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry, stated:
“The agreement reached in the European Parliament on the AI Omnibus is an important step, but falls short of expectations. The Commission’s proposal was already not ambitious enough, and key relief measures were further watered down during the parliamentary process. Given the high regulatory burden in particular, rapid and tangible improvements are now needed in the ongoing process, especially for industrial AI applications.
It is now crucial that the AI Omnibus is consistently developed further. This includes, in particular, sufficiently long and uniform transition periods for all AI systems to ensure investment certainty and avoid market distortions. Equally, clear and coherent supervision is needed within the European single market so that companies can scale their AI solutions across borders.
At the same time, regulation must actively enable innovation. A binding innovation mandate for supervisory authorities and the expansion of regulatory sandboxes are key building blocks for building trust and testing new applications responsibly.
Greater legal certainty is also required on key issues such as the use of data for training AI models. Clarifying that legitimate interests can constitute a sound legal basis is an important step for Europe’s competitiveness in the global AI market.
Furthermore, it is essential to consistently eliminate double regulation – for example between the AI Act and the GDPR, or sectoral regulation such as the EU Machinery Directive – and to design requirements in a technologically realistic manner. Only in this way can a regulatory framework be created that enables innovation without jeopardising Europe’s high level of protection.”
The full statement from eco on the Digital Omnibus on AI can be found here: https://international.eco.de/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2026/03/20260302_eco_pos_digital-omnibus_ai.pdf
