The Assembly of the COMECE Working Group on Ethics gathered in Brussels on Monday 7 October 2019 to discuss on national and EU developments in the field of ethics, and took stock of the recently published COMECE reflections on “Robotization of Life” and “Uncrewed Armed Systems”.
In the context of the legal and ethical EU framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI) indicated by Ursula von der Leyen, President-Elect of the European Commission, as one of the priorities of the incoming EU Commission, experts delegated by EU Bishops’ Conferences highlighted the need to intensify the public debate for a human-centric approach in this new type of technologies.
Participants also exchanged on financial ethics, and on the legal, security and ethical challenges posed by sophisticated military technologies, as pointed out in the recent COMECE contribution on Uncrewed Armed Systems.
In this regard, the experts of the Working Group shared the call for starting international negotiations on a legally binding instrument prohibiting lethal autonomous weapon systems.
In dialogue with MEP Peter Liese, member of the EU Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Assembly also highlighted the important contribution of Churches to the ongoing discussion on sustainability and ecological transition.
