Following regulatory criticism at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, notably by US Vice President JD Vance, the European Commission added the AI liability directive to the list of legislative acts it plans to withdraw in its 2025 final work program.
The Commission published its final work program late in the evening of February 11 with one final change: withdrawal of the AI liability directive.
The move follows the AI Action Summit held in Paris on February 10-11, where US Vice President JD Vance specifically voiced his disapproval of the EU’s regulatory approach in the technology area.
The summit, which was originally intended to promote human-centered AI, was overshadowed by announcements of significant investments of hundreds of billions of euros that the EU and France have proposed to stay ahead in the global AI race.
In this context, the withdrawal of the AI liability directive is seen as a strategic maneuver by the EU to present an open image to capital and innovation, to show that it prioritizes competitiveness, and to show goodwill to the new US administration.
More pragmatically, the AI liability directive was losing its appeal at the EU level following the adoption of the EU’s AI Act, regulating AI models and systems according to their inherent risks to society.
In this context, a high-level AI liability law was increasingly seen as unnecessary.
The Commission justified withdrawing the directive by writing that there was no foreseeable agreement on the law and that it planned to assess whether another proposal should be submitted or whether another type of approach should be chosen.
According to its work program, the Commission plans to focus on the simplification of rules and effective enforcement and lists a total of 37 proposals it will withdraw.
