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Digital skills and competences are key for social inclusion, well-being, active citizenship and employability, as well as the EU's productivity, competitiveness and resilience. Given the importance of such skills for society and the economy, the EU has set a series of targets for digital skills. However, recent data and trends make it clear that more needs to be done to speed up progress towards these targets. With the review of the European Commission's flagship digital education action plan ongoing ...

In recent decades, the digital information sphere has become the public space for debate: the place where people access information, and form and express opinions. Over the past 10 years, global information ecosystems have also increasingly become geostrategic battlegrounds. Authoritarian state actors are testing and fine-tuning techniques to manipulate public opinion and foment divisions and tension, to undermine democratic societies and open democracy as a system. At the same time, the geostrategic ...

Europe could gain competitive edge by supporting the development of new hardware for artificial intelligence (AI). Current state-of-the-art hardware is not optimised for machine learning, and both academic and private sector research is already leading to new designs. At the same time, the need for more time- and energy-efficient machine-learning hardware is increasing as more consumers and companies want access to machine-learning applications. The European Union (EU) has the opportunity to leverage ...

Henna Virkkunen is a Finnish politician and member of the National Coalition Party, which is affiliated with the European People's Party group in the European Parliament. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2014, serving inter alia on the Committees on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and Transport and Tourism (TRAN). She was also a member of the Committee of Inquiry investigating the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA) and the Special Committee on Artificial ...

In September 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive on adapting non contractual civil liability rules to artificial intelligence (AILD), with an accompanying impact assessment. The European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) requested the present complementary impact assessment of the proposal, which focuses on specific research questions. The study critique identifies key shortcomings in the European Commission's impact assessment, not least an incomplete ...

European Union lawmakers signed the artificial intelligence (AI) act in June 2024. The AI act, the first binding worldwide horizontal regulation on AI, sets a common framework for the use and supply of AI systems in the EU. The new act offers a classification for AI systems with different requirements and obligations tailored to a 'risk-based approach'. Some AI systems presenting 'unacceptable' risks are prohibited. A wide range of 'high-risk' AI systems that can have a detrimental impact on people's ...

G7 leaders gathered under the Italian presidency from 13 to 15 June 2024 in Apulia, Italy, for the 50th G7 Summit. The summit was a demonstration of the G7's unity and determination in the face of intense challenges to the rules-based multilateral order and international peace and security: Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the war in Gaza. In the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the leaders agreed to provide US$50 billion in additional funding to Ukraine from frozen ...

Exposure to 'forever chemicals', air pollution, stress and many other factors depends on where a person lives and their lifestyle choices. These exposures combine over the course of a lifetime, affecting human biology and health. The 'exposome' concept offers a framework for understanding and analysing this complex reality, and ultimately for informing the shaping of evidence-based policy on chemicals, food and the workplace, as well as on pollution, public health and the environment more generally ...

Algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way people live and work. Depending on how AI technologies are used and what purpose they serve, they can drive progress and benefit the whole of society, but they also raise ethical concerns and may cause harm. When introduced to the world of work, their transformative potential runs into complex national and EU rules. Existing labour laws, put in place before AI systems came on the scene, do not appear fit to provide meaningful guiderails ...

Traditionally, political parties and electoral administrations in the European Union have been slow to adopt campaign and election technologies. However, there is now a noticeable shift among European actors towards leveraging key technologies to enhance political communication and voting procedures. Authorities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France and one district in Portugal have already used electronic voting methods. Additionally, political parties are widely adopting data-driven campaign technology ...