Parliament sets up cross-committee working group to monitor AI Act implementation

Two of the European Parliament’s committees have set up a joint working group to monitor the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, two people familiar with the matter told Euractiv.

The implementation of the AI Act by the European Commission, which is tasked with coordinating the process, has caught the attention of the Parliament. MEPs have previously expressed concerns over the lack of transparency around the AI Office’s staffing process, as well as the involvement of civil society in parts of the implementation process.

The Parliament’s committees on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) will be setting up a cross-committee working group for the AI Act, the sources, who declined to be identified discussing private conversations, told Euractiv.

But details about how this monitoring working group will work, such as how it will approach the AI Act, who will be involved, and how often it will meet, will be figured out after the summer. Plans for the group were previously reported by Euractiv.

In the meantime, the Commission’s AI Office is continuing its work for the implementation of the AI Act, which comes into force on 1 August. The Act’s prohibitions on certain uses of AI, such as real-time biometric identification, will apply six months after that date.

Implementation is staggered until the Act is fully applied, two years after it enters into force. By this time, the Commission has to clarify how important provisions of the AI Act, such as the prohibitions, will be implemented.

Traditionally, the Parliament does not have a large role in the implementation of regulation. However, MEPs active in tech policy have been looking to change that, particularly given the spree of digital regulations that have come into force in the past year.

The Parliament already has structures within committees to monitor the implementation of the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts, two landmark EU regulations on content moderation and digital competition, respectively.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

Read more with Euractiv