European Parliament to grill Commission over ditched AI liability rules

The Legal Affairs committee in the European Parliament will ask European Commission representatives to explain why it wants to withdraw its AI Liability Directive proposal, Parliament sources have told Euronews. 

In the Commission’s 2025 work program, presented earlier this month in Strasbourg, the EU executive said it plans to scrap the AI Liability Directive because “no foreseeable agreement” is expected on the proposal.

The rules were intended to offer consumers a harmonised means of redress when they experience harm arising from AI products or services. They were proposed in 2022 but no significant progress has been made since. 

Last week, group coordinators from the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) voted to keep working on liability rules for the time being. The Legal Affairs committee, which leads the Parliament's work on the issue, has not yet officially decided what to do, but will get together early March to decide on the next steps.

The Parliament is divided over the need for the rules, however, with the centre-left, left and greens in favour of continuing with the file, whereas the centre-right and conservative groups, including ECR and EPP, broadly behind scrapping the plan. 

The rapporteur in the IMCO committee, Kosma Złotowski (Poland/ECR), said in his draft opinion published in January that the “adoption of an AI Liability Directive at this stage is premature and unnecessary.”

Regarding the member states, Euronews understands that there are no plans to discuss the Commission’s proposal to get rid of the rules, at working party level.

The question of what value they would add has been raised several times by member states during the examination of the proposal in the Council, the EU official said. 

The Brussels tech lobby and consumer organisations were likewise divided about the need for additional rules.