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LABELING AI CONTENT 
TODAY: EU PUSHES FOR ‘AI LABEL’ TO FIGHT DEEPFAKES: Brussels wants to prevent artificial intelligence from blurring the lines between fact and fiction — and will today ask companies for the first time ever to come up with a label to identify AI-generated texts and images to fight disinformation, officials tell Playbook.
Brave new world: Generative AI is making breathtaking advances — from writing texts and code to creating ever more realistic pictures and videos — which will have enormous consequences not just for the future of society and work, but for politics, Commission officials reckon.
Balenc-ai-ga: The fake images of the Pope and famous politicians wearing a Balenciaga coat that went viral earlier this year have clearly spooked them — and they now want to label such deepfakes.
Fake porn: “Today it is mostly still a game, but tomorrow you could see a fake porn with a candidate,” one official who is working on the file but was not authorized to speak on the record told Playbook, referring to AI-generated images of politicians.
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Race to regulate: The Commission (the EU’s executive, which proposes and enforces laws) — has proposed an AI Act to regulate high-risk applications and ban the most dangerous ones. But even before that act enters into force, the Commission will urge industry to cut down on trickery by labeling AI-generated work.
Happening today: Commission VP for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová and Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton will meet representatives of 40-odd organizations that have signed up to the EU’s Code of Practice against disinformation. They include Microsoft, Google, Meta, TikTok, Twitch and smaller companies — but not Twitter, which has left the code — as well as NGOs.
Disinformation risks: “I will ask the signatories to create a dedicated and separate track within the code” to deal with disinformation generated by Artificial Intelligence, Jourová told Playbook. “It should … aim to identify the specific disinformation risks presented by generative AI and take appropriate measures to address them.”
EU pushes for safeguards: How does Brussels want the companies to tackle the risks? “Signatories who integrate generative AI into their services like Bingchat for Microsoft, Bard for Google should build in necessary safeguards that these services cannot be used by malicious actors to generate disinformation,” Jourová said.
Clear labels: “Signatories who have services with a potential to disseminate AI-generated disinformation should in turn put in place technology to recognize such content and clearly label this to users.”
More about this label: Two officials working on the file told Playbook the label should apply to all AI-generated material that can be used to create disinformation, including text, images, audio and video.
Voluntary — for now: It wouldn’t be mandatory, given that it would be part of the voluntary Code of Practice. However, the Commission aims to make the code enforceable by including it as a code of conduct in the Digital Services Act (DSA). Obligations on labeling AI content may also make it into the AI Act during negotiations between EU countries, Parliament and the Commission, one official said.
How can companies do this? “They can develop, and they probably already have tools to check whether an image was AI-generated or not,” the first official said.
Playbook wonders: Given how easy it is for AI to proliferate across jurisdictions, will such a technology ever be able to identify all deepfakes — or won’t we, on the contrary, one day need some chain of custody procedure for authentic images that can be used, for example, as evidence in court?
Stay tuned: Jourová will present her initiative at a press point today at 11:15 a.m.
SPEAKING OF WHICH: While the Commission is calling on others to do more, it was recently reported that it awarded and signed a €3.7 million tender to help analyze issues like disinformation, foreign meddling in elections and global threats from a French firm that’s mired in controversy.
Avisa Partners has previously been accused of manipulating information in France and working for authoritarian regimes. The company was recently at the center of a controversy as the organizer of a cybersecurity forum boycotted by the French armed forces ministry and several government officials. More here for our Pro Cybersecurity subscribers.
Looking into this: The Commission is looking into the allegations and “is in contact with French counterparts to seek more clarity on those claim[s],” Peter Stano, the Commission’s spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy, told my POLITICO Pro Technology colleagues. The EU executive is “closely monitoring the implementation of this project,” he added.
Jean Tillinac, from Avisa Partners, told my Pro Tech colleagues that the bid was “defended by a team of seasoned experts from our Strategic Intelligence Division” doing research and which was different from the “Digital Communications Division” facing criticism.
QATARGATE
KAILI STRIKES BACK: EU lawmaker Eva Kaili, the main suspect in the Qatargate scandal, gave three separate interviews over the weekend to French, Italian and Spanish media, saying she was wrongly jailed and has no role in the case. The star lawmaker, who spent more than four months in prison, was freed from house arrest in late May on a number of conditions, including not to speak to press.
“I was under surveillance”: Apart from her innocence, it is clear from her interviews that her defense line will be that she was targeted for her work at the European Parliament and particularly at the PEGA Committee, which investigates the use of illegal spyware in Europe.
“From the court file, my lawyers have discovered that the Belgian secret services have allegedly been monitoring the activities of members of the Pegasus special committee,” she told Corriere Della Sera. “The fact that elected members of parliament are being spied on by the secret services should raise more concerns about the health of our European democracy. I think this is the ‘real scandal.’”
Secret services from 5 countries: In a video interview published in El Mundo, Kaili says that her team has the evidence that the investigation was for her work and that the whole committee “was under scrutiny.” She said that the secret services from at least five countries wanted to get information.
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ALL ABOUT MONEY
ALSO TODAY: NETHERLANDS AND SPAIN PUSH FOR DEBT RULES REFORM: Dutch Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag is in Madrid today to meet her Spanish counterpart Nadia Calviño. They will call on the EU to switch into a higher gear and agree new EU debt rules before next year’s election, Kaag told Playbook.
Kaag said it is crucial to “bridge different positions in Council and agree on this important reform ahead of the 2024 elections.”
The North-South alliance: Spain and the Netherlands were traditionally on opposite sides of the “solidarity vs responsibility” debate over how strict or lenient Brussels should be with countries that have accumulated too much public debt — and over how quickly EU countries should repay that debt.
But in a joint proposal reported by Playbook last year, the ministers teamed up to call for new “country-specific” rules that would allow highly indebted countries to repay their debt at a slower pace.
Kaag backs safeguards: “The Commission has taken on board a lot of ideas out of last year’s Spanish-Dutch non-paper, moving our fiscal rules towards an approach that is country specific, risk based and countercyclical,” Kaag told Playbook ahead of today’s meeting — which comes as Spain prepares to take over the presidency of the Council in July.
In order strike a deal with other EU countries (read: Germany) “it’s crucial that we now work to include safeguards for sufficient debt reduction and enhanced compliance and oversight. I look forward to continue to work constructively with Nadia Calviño to that end.”
ITALY SNAPS AT BRUSSELS OVER RECOVERY FUND: Italy, the largest recipient of the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, is falling behind on its implementation and struggling to deliver on more than a quarter of the targets, a document obtained by my colleague Hannah Roberts shows. Italy is still waiting for the Commission to green-light the third payment, amounting to €19 billion, and will miss a June deadline for the fourth payment request, potentially postponing the next tranche of funding.
Watch the watchdog: Italy has also sought to curtail the power of its own the Court of Auditors, an independent watchdog for public expenditure that has been critical of the government’s use of EU funds. Rome’s fights with the court have led to Commission on Friday to say: “we have an agreement with the Italian authorities on the need to have an audit and control system which is effective.”
Rome didn’t like that, and in an eight-point statement on Friday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office shot back saying that the Commission was “fueling an exploitative politicized controversy with no basis in reality.”
Read Hannah’s story in full here.
**Did you miss the 18th edition of GLOBSEC’s Bratislava Forum? Take a look back at what our guests, such as Marcon, von der Leyen, and Nehammer, had to say as Europe and the world seek to address the current global fragility here.**
IN OTHER NEWS
NO GREEN INTENTION GOES UNPUNISHED: Wondering how difficult the implementation of the EU’s green targets will be? Just ask Robert Habeck. Germany’s once-popular economy minister is facing the fight of his political life as he tries to bring down the country’s carbon emissions, reports Hans von der Burchard from Berlin.
Heating up … Habeck, who less than a year ago was Germany’s most popular politician and considered a strong contender against Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the next election in 2025, has sparked so much controversy that one in two Germans want him to resign. His Green party is also down in polls while the far right is up. That’s mainly due to the chaotic rollout of a ban on gas and oil heating.
…just like the planet: But climate change isn’t waiting for politics. Habeck has already vowed to improve the law to make it more acceptable for citizens, meaning that he could still politically recover. Read Hans’s story here.
CHINA TRASHES US AND MEETS EUROPE: Several European defense chiefs gathered with their Asian counterparts for the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend. But they didn’t have an easy time advocating for supporting Ukraine. Much of the focus instead went to the U.S.-China tensions, our correspondent Stuart Lau writes in to report from the ground. Indonesia, one of the most influential countries in Southeast Asia, came up with another proposal to let Ukrainians living in Russia-controlled regions hold a referendum.
Europe emerged as a key interlocutor with Beijing as the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and German defense chief Boris Pistorius managed to meet with China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who refused to go beyond a handshake with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin. Still, it was only their first date.
Read more from Stuart.
TIANANMEN SQUARE ANNIVERSARY ARRESTS: More than 20 people, including prominent pro-democracy figures and at least one member of the press, were arrested by Hong Kong police Sunday at a vigil marking the 34th anniversary of the Chinese state’s Tiananmen Square massacre. The vigil has been banned in Hong Kong since the passing of the national security law in 2020. The Guardian has more.
AGENDA
— MEPs in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee quiz European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on financial stability. Brussels, 3 p.m. Watch.
— Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) meeting. Discussion on the EU’s migration pact on the agenda.
— Commission Vice President Věra Jourová holds press point on the 5th Meeting of the Code of Practice’s Permanent Task-Force on tackling AI-generated disinformation. Commission VIP corner, 11:15 a.m.
— Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis receives Special Minister of State and Minister for Trade and Tourism of Australia Don Farrell.
— Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica in Ispra, Italy: attends the launch event for the Commission’s Report on Demography and Climate Change … visits the Europa Science Experience Exhibition … Then travels to Milan and meets with President of Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana … with President of Gariwo Gabriele Nissim … attends the inauguration of Europe Direct Lombardia … attends the reception for the 10th anniversary of Croatia in the EU.
— Commissioner Ylva Johansson in Antwerp, Belgium: participates in a ministerial meeting of the coalition of European countries against serious and organized crime.
— Commissioner Janez Lenarčič in Oslo, Norway: meets Minister of Health and Care Services Ingvild Kjerkjol … field visit to witness Norway’s EU-financed medical evacuation of Ukrainian patients.
— Commissioner Kadri Simson in Warsaw, Poland: meets with Minister for Climate and Environment Anna Moskwa … delivers a keynote speech at the 3rd Summit of the Pact of Free Cities … delivers a keynote speech, via videoconference, at the opening of the 31st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition.
— World Health Organization Global Digital Certification Network uptake ceremony with Commissioners Stella Kyriakides and Thierry Breton and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at 12:30 p.m. Watch.
— 2023 NATO Youth Summit in Brussels and Washington, D.C.: Czech President Petr Pavel speaks at 2.30 p.m. … NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at 3:30 p.m. Agenda. Watch.
**Energize your knowledge of UK climate policy with POLITICO Pro Energy & Climate UK, the essential service policy professionals use to keep track of the U.K.’s pathway to net zero. Get started with a free trial today!**
BRUSSELS CORNER
STRIKE WATCH: The taxi sector — The Belgian Taxi Federation, Taxis United and Elite Taxi Belgium — is calling for a demonstration in Brussels on Tuesday June 6. They denounce “discrimination” in their sector because taxis must pay parking fees from which shared cars are exempt … Separately, Haren Prison’s employees have filed a strike notice, for June 7, after some of them were attacked by inmates.
FORMER BRUSSELS POLITICIAN IN ERDOĞAN’S CABINET: Former member of Brussels parliament and councillor in Schaerbeek Mahinur Özdemir was named as Turkey’s minister of family affairs on Saturday, as the only woman in Erdoğan’s newly sworn-in cabinet. Özdemir became known as the first politician in parliament wearing a headscarf, and was later expelled from her party — CdH, now Les Engagés — for not recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Up until now, she held the post of a Turkish ambassador to Algeria.
BOOK PRESENTATION: THE ART OF THE DEAL IN BRUSSELS: Javier Elorza, an influential veteran of the EU famous for his tough negotiating style, will on Tuesday present his book (so far only in Spanish) at Brussels’ Instituto Cervantes on June 6 at 7 p.m.
BIRTHDAYS: MEPs Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg and Christine Schneider; British politician and former MEP Claire Fox; Former MEPs Maurice Ponga and Luisa Regimenti; Lund University’s Rickard Eksten; Onet’s Dorota Bawołek. Denmark’s Constitution Day.
THANKS to Nektaria Stamouli, Mark Scott, Stuart Lau, Hans von der Burchard, Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová, producer Dato Parulava and editors Joe Stanley-Smith and Sanya Khetani-Shah.
**A message from Meta: Instagram’s Family Tools were created to help teenagers have a healthier and safer experience on the app. Accounts for under 18s are set to private by default, so what they post stays between them and their followers. The Supervision tool gives parents more insight into who their teenagers are following, and who’s following them back, and setting up Daily Time Limit together helps them keep healthy habits on Instagram. Learn more about these and other tools and features like Sensitive Content Control, Education Hub and the Family Centre, that help teenagers have a safer experience on Instagram.**
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