EFJ Welcomes European Parliament's Landmark Vote on AI and Copyright

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has welcomed the European Parliament's adoption on 10 March 2026 of its report on "Copyright and Generative Artificial Intelligence — Opportunities and Challenges", describing it as a significant first step in protecting the intellectual property rights of journalists across Europe.

The EFJ said the vote — passed 460 to 71 with 88 abstentions — recognised the need for action to ensure fairness, transparency, and appropriate remuneration for creators in the generative AI market. The federation has long argued that AI companies have relied on journalistic content without seeking consent, providing remuneration, or ensuring transparency — practices it says undermine intellectual property rights and threaten the financial sustainability of journalism.

The report calls for AI providers to produce an itemised list of all copyright-protected content used in training, supports a broad licensing framework, and calls for a remuneration obligation on AI developers whose services aggregate and disseminate press publishers' content. The Parliament also called for these obligations to apply regardless of the jurisdiction in which AI models were trained, providing extraterritorial effect for EU rights holders.

The EFJ noted that with the 2019 Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) due for review in 2026, the Parliament's vote sends a clear political signal to the European Commission to act swiftly. The EFJ called for enforceable legislative obligations to follow rather than voluntary commitments.