AI in democracy: ensuring oversight and compliance with EU values 

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament.

• Prioritise European AI tools and strategic autonomy across AI value chain
• Call for EU-led international AI agreement on security and societal risks
• Call for EU-led international AI agreement on security and societal risks
• Budget-neutral EP AI observatory to strengthen parliamentary scrutiny

The European Parliament calls for parliamentary scrutiny and regulation of the impact of artificial intelligence on EU democratic processes, institutional balance, and fundamental rights.

In a resolution on the institutional aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of European integration, adopted on Thursday by 405 votes to 133 and 60 abstentions, MEPs assess the opportunities and concerns related to the use of AI in public administration and democratic process.

AI in EU lawmaking

MEPs recognise AI’s transformative potential in supporting EU lawmaking but stress that AI use within the EU institutions must remain human-centred, subject to human oversight, and aligned with EU values. AI can assist with evidence-based policymaking, and the simplification and evaluation of EU law, MEPs argue, but must never replace human political responsibility or result in purely automated political decisions.

European AI technology and global regulation

They say European AI tools should be prioritised, particularly within EU institutions. To this end, the text says that the EU should scale up “European technology” and ensure strategic autonomy across the AI value chain.

Technologies with global security and societal implications require an international agreement, modelled on nuclear non-proliferation, with the EU taking a leading role. Safeguards must be built alongside AI, but without unnecessarily hampering innovation or competitiveness.

AI shaping democracy

Artificial intelligence increasingly shapes political communication, electoral processes, public discourse and decision-making. MEPs therefore call for a systematic parliamentary assessment of risks as well as opportunities of AI and for a reform of the European electoral law. The Charter of Fundamental Rights should include new rights, such as the protection of personal identity and likeness and algorithmic transparency, add MEPs.

Parliament’s AI observatory

The report proposes a budget-neutral administrative unit – the “European Parliament AI observatory” – to support the work of Parliament committees in tasks such as ex post evaluation of AI-related legislation and analysis of AI’s impact on the Union’s institutional balance and democratic processes.

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The rapporteur, Manolis Kefalogiannis (EPP, Greece), said: “AI does not progress linearly. It advances in leaps, and Europe must take the lead in shaping it. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: By humans, for humans, with humans. So that AI does not become the last invention that humans will ever need to create.”