ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee
The ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee promotes dialogue and the exchange of ideas on technology and computing policy issues with the European Commission and other governmental bodies in Europe, and the informatics and computing communities. The Committee engages in policy issues related to the importance of technology in boosting jobs, economic growth, competition, investment, research and development, education, inclusive social development, and innovation.
The Committee promotes sound public policy and public understanding of a broad range of issues at the intersection of technology and policy. Its policy statements reflect the expertise of ACM Europe Council professional members from the public and private sectors experienced in informatics, computer science, and other computing-related subjects.
As the internet is global, the Committee works with other ACM entities on publications, projects, and policies related to emergent cross-border issues, such as e-privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and internet governance.
ACM Europe TPC Recommendations on Greener Data Centers
Europe TPC submitted a policy brief to the European Commission outlining five recommendations to strengthen sustainability requirements for data centers. Its key point was that current EU legislation lacks binding efficiency targets and comprehensive reporting obligations. The brief calls for enforceable standards on energy and water usage, broader facility coverage, enhanced transparency, and long-term planning to manage AI-related demand growth.
ACM Europe TPC Recommendations on Climate Disclosure in the AI Act
Europe TPC provided the European Commission with specific recommendations to strengthen environmental accountability under the AI Act. Its key point was that the law’s current provisions omit critical climate disclosures, particularly around inference-phase energy use, indirect emissions, and AI-specific water consumption. The brief outlines concrete amendments to ensure transparency, comparability, and public access to AI-related climate data.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on High Value Datasets
Europe TPC provided the European Commission with specific suggestions for how best to implement newly adopted legislation regarding High Value Datasets. Its key point was that important components of established “FAIR” principles omitted from that statute be expressly included in the pending implementing legislation, particularly provisions addressing the findability and accessibility of data.
Europe TPC Comments on EC Cyber Resilience Consultation
The Committee responded to a detailed “radio button” questionnaire and supplemented its selections with several key written points, including: endorsing the promotion of secure-by-design and secure-by-default engineering approaches; warning of an increased likelihood of state actors, or their proxies, using cyber-attacks; and urging the development of secure-by-design principles specific to machine learning systems.
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ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee
- Chair
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Michel Beaudouin-Lafon
- Members-at-Large
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Gürkan Solmaz
- ACM President, ex officio
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Yannis Ioannidis
- Senior Advisor, ex officio
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Fabrizio Gagliardi
- ACM Technology Policy Council Co-Chairs, ex officio
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Virginia Dignum
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Jeanna Matthews
- ACM Chief Executive Officer, ex officio
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Vicki Hanson
- ACM Chief Operating Officer, ex officio
- Patricia Ryan
- Past Chair
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Chris Hankin
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon Named ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee Chair
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon has been named Chair of the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee. Beaudouin-Lafon is Professor of Computer Science, Classe Exceptionnelle, at Université Paris-Saclay, senior fellow of Institut Universitaire de France, recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal, and an ACM Fellow. He has served as the Technology Policy Council Vice Chair, and as a member of the TPC TechBriefs Committee, and the Europe Council.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on "Data Act"
Europe TPC's Comments endorsed the Commission’s intent to ensure "fairness in the allocation of value from data among actors in the data economy and to foster access to and use of data," while specifically urging that the proposed Data Act: be expanded to encompass metadata; address foreseeable environmental impacts; and minimise data processing's complexity and cost.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on "Chips Act" Semiconductor Ecosystem Framework
Europe TPC’s Comments support the Commission’s goal of enabling Europe to become more self-reliant in semiconductor manufacturing. It notes, however, that the proposed Chips Act fails to take into account the climate impact of such manufacturing in its proposed framework. That represents a missed opportunity to further the European Union’s Green Deal objectives that should be redressed.
ACM Europe TPC in European Commission AI & Product Liability Consultation
As policy makers strive to update established bodies of law for the digital age, the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee provides the European Commission with both general guidance and specific suggestions for addressing product liability issues uniquely raised by the advent of artificial intelligence.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on Digital Principles
In Comments submitted to the European Commission, ACM's Europe Technology Policy Committee endorses the adoption of Digital Principles to, for example: provide robust and equitable access to the internet; protect user privacy; promote e-government and e-health services; combat climate change; protect and empower children online; foster digital literacy through universal Informatics education; and promote ethical algorithm design.
ACM Europe TPC Statement on Digital Green Certificates
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee submitted a statement to the European Parliament's LIBE Committee on the use of proposed Digital Green Certificates to permit point-of-use access to personal health and other data of certificate holders between and among European Union Member States. Among Europe TPC's recommendations were to work with the World Health Organization to develop an international directory; and to protect EU citizens from “data inference,” or the risk that a verifier could infer secondary health data from an individual’s vaccination status alone.
ACM Europe TPC Comments on Green Deal
ACM’s Europe Technology Policy Committee submitted comments to the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission in support of the comprehensive and ambitious sweep of the Commission’s Green Deal. ACM Europe TPC strongly concurs with the Commission’s premise that realizing true energy efficiencies in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector will be critical to Europe’s success in meeting the Green Deal’s appropriately aggressive climate targets.
Advancing Cybersecurity Research and Education in Europe
A new policy white paper by the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee, "Advancing Cybersecurity Research and Education in Europe: Major Drivers of Growth in the Digital Landscape," explores the important role of cybersecurity research and education in enhancing cybersecurity, and provides an overview of emerging trends and challenges, including new privacy and security concerns.
Europe TPC, IE Recommendations on Automated Decision Making
The white paper "When Computers Decide: European Recommendations on Machine-Learned Automated Decision Making" presents the views of the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee and Informatics Europe (IE) on the challenges posed by the increasing presence of Machine Learning and Automated Decision Making (ADM) systems in almost every aspect of modern human life.
ACM US and European Policy Committees List Seven Principles to Address Algorithmic Bias
Recognizing the ubiquity of algorithms in our daily lives, as well as their far-reaching impact, the ACM US Technology Policy Committee and the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee have issued a statement and a list of seven principles designed to address potential harmful bias. The US ACM committee approved the principles earlier this year, and the European ACM committee approved them on May 25.
