In the final stages of the AI Act legislation development when CDT Europe needed to act, the European AI & Society Fund was able to move money quickly to help them meet that need. Since then, we have awarded them several project focused grants to support AI Act trilogues, coordination of civil society voices on AI Act implementation, and legal analysis on redress.
The challenge
After years of debate, consultation rounds and draft legislation, in August 2024, the AI Act entered into force. While this has been agreed at a high-level, the AI Act now needs to be enacted and implemented in European Union Member states by August 2027.
This process is an opportunity for civil society to influence the interpretation of the AI Act so it protects and serves people and society.
Civil society must be able to propose technically-informed solutions, and articulate positive visions of how AI should be (as opposed to criticising text without proposing replacement language, or solely focussing on what AI should not do).
It’s also a critical time for civil society to point out AI harms and seek redress for injustice, as AI systems start to be rolled out in public services across Europe.
The actions
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) Europe advocates for the promotion and protection of democracy and human rights in European tech law and policy. Their team has strong legal expertise, and their sister organisation in the US – the CDT AI Governance Lab – allows them to carry out deeply technical policy work.
At a crucial point in the AI Act development, CDT Europe partnered with the Spanish EU presidency to host a high-level roundtable event with participation from stakeholders including Ministers and institutional representatives. 35 government officials attended representing 15 EU member states. CDT’s coordination of civil voices led to a joint civil society strategy on AI Act implementation prioritising:
- A rights-based approach and a holistic framework the ensures the protection of the most vulnerable and at-risk groups
- Strong accountability and transparency measures
- Strict regulation and prohibitions as necessary on the use of AI in the context of law enforcement and migration
- Access to effective remedy and redress
Thanks to their civil society coordination efforts, CDT Europe has become an extremely well networked organisation that can play the insider game of EU politics. They have built connections with the offices of members of the AI Act Working Group in the European Parliament and with the European Commission, including with the drafters of the Code of Practice, with whom they had one-to-one advocacy meetings.
They are very collaborative and build strong relations with wider civil society and social justice movements and use their access with institutions to get those voices heard. Their work on the Code of Practice was extensively quoted by the press and helped them become a visible public interest actor in the field. They regularly participate in high-profile events such as the inaugural AI Standards Hub Global Summit in London.
How the European AI & Society Fund helped
In the final stages of the AI Act legislation development when CDT Europe needed to act, the European AI & Society Fund was able to move money quickly to them to meet that need. Since then, we have awarded them several project focused grants to support AI Act trilogues, coordination of civil society voices on AI Act implementation, and legal analysis on redress.
CDT Europe found the workshop on the AI Act implementation and enforcement with ECNL, organised by The Fund in September 2024, to be useful in understanding the AI Act’s various implementation deadlines, and help them plan and prioritise based on shared timelines.
The fund enabled CDT Europe to strengthen connections within the EU sphere, which was crucial in the first year of operation of their Equity and Data programme. For example, CDT Europe has built strong ties with fellow grantees BEUC, Open Future and Equinet which became regular attendees to their Code of Practice coordination meetings.
This also helped build our understanding of consumer protection and copyright internally, which allowed them to align their positioning and emphasise their shared advocacy points. CDT Europe worked closely with Equinet to agree on the scoping of the “discrimination” risk in the systemic risk taxonomy, both in their written submissions and oral interventions.
CDT Europe also worked with fellow grantees to organise the first meeting with APAs mentioned in the project summary section, which featured BEUC and ECNL among others, and collaborated with BEUC on messaging and civil society engagement around the AI Action Summit in 2025.
In terms of field building, CDT Europe has been using the European AI & Society Fund’s community events to grow the connections between organisations like CDT and newer entrants to the field. They are part of the Fund’s AI accountability Community of Practice, and shared their legal analysis of GDPR versus AI Act for redress which benefitted grassroots grantees.