Belgium Votes Against EU AI Code Of Conduct Amid Copyright Concerns

Muhammad Irfan Published August 02, 2025 | 04:15 PM

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 02nd Aug, 2025) BRUSSELS, 2nd August, 2025 (WAM) – Belgium voted against the code of conduct for AI for general use amid concerns over copyright issues, according to Federal Minister of Digitalisation Vanessa Matz.

On Saturday, a new part of the European AI legislation, the AI Act, will come into force, with rules for AI models for general purposes. These are models, including large generative models that can perform various tasks. The rules are intended to ensure clearer information on how AI models are trained, better enforcement of copyright protection, and more responsible development of AI.

Belgium voted against this because the document offers too few guarantees for the protection of copyright. Within the EU, copyright is not only protected by the AI Act, but the stronger the commitments within the code of conduct, the stronger the position of authors, in our country's view.

During the discussions, Belgium made comments aimed at raising the level of ambition, such as simplifying the exercise of the opt-out clause for rightholders, guarantees of fair compensation, and the exclusion of searches on websites that distribute illegal content, even if there is no commercial purpose.

Despite improvements compared to the original document, the text—which was approved and has since been published—remains insufficient for our country.

"Belgium and other European countries have emphasised that this is not the end of a process, and the Commission has acknowledged that an evaluation and amendment of the code may need to take place sooner than legally required," said Minister Matz.

She added: “I will continue to work with the relevant services to ensure that AI models take the interests of journalists, publishers, producers, and creators into account.”

According to the European Commission's website, 26 companies have already signed the code of conduct, including Google, microsoft, and the company behind Chat GPT, Open AI. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, among others, has announced that it will not do so because the text creates additional legal uncertainty.