Connected – November 2024

This issue has been edited by Valerian Jenny with contributions from the Regulatory & Public Affairs team.

In this year’s final edition of Connected, we report on the hearings of the newly elected Commissioners Virkkunen and McGrath, summarise ENISA’s consultation draft of implementing guidance on NIS2 security measures, and explain what an emotion recognition system is.

We also share updates on key developments in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and the Netherlands, and include a link to our EU AI Act Guide — an early Christmas gift for our readers.

We are grateful for your engagement this year, wish you a wonderful festive holiday, and look forward to bringing Connected back in 2025.

Key digital takeaways from the hearings of incoming Commissioners

Finnish politician and former Member of the European Parliament, Ms Henna Virkkunen, has been confirmed as the European Commission’s new Executive Vice President in charge of tech policy, and is due to take her seat on 1 December along with the other members of the new College of Commissioners for 2024-2029. The Christian-democratic politician will be in charge of a high-profile portfolio that ranges from implementation of the recently adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act and reform of the telecoms framework to defence and security plans in Europe. During her three-hour hearing, Ms Virkkunen was questioned by MEPs from the Industry and Internal Market Committees.

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For more information, please contact Francine Cunningham.

ENISA Implementing Guidance on NIS2 security measures - draft for consultation

On 18 October 2024, the European Commission published the Implementing Regulation laying down rules for the application of the NIS2 Directive as regards technical and methodological requirements of cybersecurity risk-management measures and further specification of the cases in which an incident is considered to be significant with regard to certain types of entities, including cloud computing service providers, data centre service providers, managed (security) service providers, providers of online market places, of online search engines and of social networking services platforms (so-called ‘relevant entities’).

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For more information, please contact Dr. Natallia Karniyevich.

What is an Emotion Recognition System under the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act?: Part 1 - A machine that “understands” your Monday blues!

This article explores what counts as an Emotion Recognition System (ERS) under the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (the AI Act) and delves into the ambiguities surrounding its definition under the AI Act. Since, the AI Act prohibits the use of ERSs in certain contexts (and since this prohibition is due to kick in on 2 February 2025), this article aims help businesses be more alert to possible regulatory guidance that might bring them within scope of the AI Act at short notice.

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For more information, please contact Nora Santalu.

Ireland – EU AI Act Update 

On the 6th of November, Dara Calleary, the Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company regulation (the ‘Minister’) released a refresh of Irelands National AI strategy, linked here. This document outlines the road map for how Ireland plans to implement the EU AI Act.

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For more information, please contact Deirdre Kilroy.