Council of Europe Committee on AI completes a first reading of the draft convention on AI

During its 6th Plenary meeting of 31 May to 2 June, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) reached a significant milestone in the negotiation of the (framework) convention on artificial intelligence (AI) by completing the first reading of the draft text.  CAI members and observers, including civil society organisations, provided comments on the draft across all substantive chapters:

• Chapter I – general provisions
• Chapter II – application of AI systems by public authorities
• Chapter III – application of AI systems in provision of goods, facilities, and services
• Chapter IV – fundamental principles of design, development, and application of AI systems
• Chapter V – measures and safeguards ensuring accountability and redress
• Chapter VI – assessment and mitigation of risks and adverse impacts

This progress builds upon the work that was carried out in previous CAI meetings, where revisions were made to the text regarding he follow-up and implementation mechanism of the convention (chapter VII) and its final provisions (chapter VIII).

The upcoming phase of the CAI negotiations holds the promise of further advancement and will require the negotiating parties to reach a compromise on the convention’s text. Some key questions that need to be addressed, include the scope of the convention, the level of granularity and content of the obligations the principles, as well as the approach for risk identification and mitigation. 

The next plenary meeting is scheduled for October 23rd to 26th and aims to bridge the positions of the negotiating parties on these issues. In preparation, informal hybrid meetings of the drafting group will be conducted, starting in July and September and focusing on specific issues of the draft. The complexity of the topic and the need for more time for technical work is expected to require an adjustment of the initially envisaged timeline to finalise the convention (to be agreed by the Committee of Ministers).

Since January 2023, the European Union (EU) is actively participating in the discussions and adopted a constructive approach while aiming for consistency in the terminology and principles used within the convention. The EU strongly advocates for a comprehensive scope of the AI Convention, encompassing AI systems that impact human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, regardless of whether these systems are developed or utilized by public or private actors. The objective is to ensure that this future international instrument is fully compatible with existing relevant EU law on fundamental rights, as well as the upcoming AI Act. The proposed AI Act is actually in its final phase of negotiations in Trilogues, following the successful adoption of European Parliament’s report on 14 June 2024. To learn more about the EU’s authorisation to negotiate the convention and its position in CAI, read more in our previous blog posts.