The future of robotics and artificial intelligence in Europe

I would like to thank the European Parliament for the invitation to speak at this seminar on a topic which is at the heart of the European Commission's activities, especially those of the Directorate-General I represent, DG Connect. Let me first state that we greatly appreciate and welcome the publication of the report of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee. Given the great public attention currently devoted to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) this report is very timely and points at some crucial issues that need to be addressed. It highlights the opportunities robotics and AI offer and points towards the clear need for a coherent European approach and for Europe to have a strong presence and investment in this technology in order to maintain leadership in it. Many aspects of the report are directly in line with the Digitising European Industry strategy we launched in April 2016.