The European Parliament plenary voted today on its text on the proposed legislation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act).
The ban on mass biometric surveillance in public places in real time was adopted by the plenary with 335 votes in favour to 235 votes against. We are very proud of the outcome of this vote, despite the fact that there remain provisions in the proposed legislation that pose significant challenges to Human Rights!
But how did our representatives vote? On 25/5, Homo Digitalis had sent open letters to all Greek MEPs, so that no one can claim not to know what is at stake in today’s vote.
We are glad that MEPs Arvanitis, Kokkalis, Kouloglou, Kountoura, Kirtos, Papadimoulis, and Papandreou voted in favour of maintaining the position of the IMCO and LIBE Committees of the European Parliament on the ban. We are concerned that MEPs Vozemberg-Vryonidis, Zagorakis, Kefalogiannis, Meimarakis and Spyraki voted against maintaining this position, and we remain at their disposal to highlight with our positions and arguments the need for a ban on mass biometric surveillance in public places in real time without exceptions.
Nothing has been decided yet, however, as the trilateral negotiations are now beginning!