Last night, cultural and creative voices from across Europe came together in the European Parliament with a united message: the EU policymakers must uphold the principles of transparency, consent, and protection of creators as artificial intelligence is integrated into the cultural and creative sectors.
Hosted by MEPs Brando Benifei and Michael McNamara, the event brought together prominent figures from across the European creative spectrum, including ABBA co-founder and CISAC President, Björn Ulvaeus, Olivier Nusse (Universal Music France), Christian van Thillo (DPG Media), Anne-Sylvie Bameule (Actes Sud), and Jesús Badenes del Río (Planeta Books Division). The event also drew participation from a wide range of creators and performers, highlighting the breadth of concern and unity across the sector.
Speaking on behalf of a broad coalition of authors, performers, publishers, producers, and cultural enterprises, participants voiced serious concern about the current direction of AI policy implementation in the EU. They emphasised the need for meaningful involvement of the creative sector in shaping standards that will govern how AI is developed and used, particularly where it affects creative content.
After the event, Helen Smith, IMPALA’s Executive Chair, commented: “Innovation and respect of rights go hand in hand. This is one of the main messages from last night’s event. The EU’s AI Act contains important transparency and copyright compliance obligations for providers of general-purpose AI models. Now we need a strong stance from the EU to help ensure – through the Code of Practice and Transparency Template – a meaningful implementation of the AI Act. We expect the Code of Practice to provide legal certainty and for the Transparency Template to deliver a high level of transparency on training data. This is a condition sine qua non if we want to ensure that creators and rightholders can engage in fair and market-based licensing negotiations with good actors and to enforce their rights against unlawful uses of their works by bad actors.”
Voices from the event emphasised the urgency of faithful AI implementation
Björn Ulvaeus, co-founder of ABBA and President of CISAC, said: “We must never be seduced by the false idea that, in the headlong rush to the new AI world, creators’ interests must be cast aside. That approach won’t work – not for the creative sector, not for the economy, or for culture, or even for the tech sector whose vast AI revenues, let’s not forget, derive from copyrighted creative works made by humans. The vision has to be a win-win for creators and the tech industry. That can only happen with legislation that truly and effectively safeguards creators.”
Anne-Sylvie Bameule, Présidente du groupe Actes Sud, added that “fake AI transparency as currently proposed by the European Commission will enable AI companies to keep stealing millions of books in full impunity. The book market is already flooded with fake books that not only threaten the biggest European cultural sector but can also endanger consumers. The European legislator clearly said ‘no more’, it’s time for the Commission to do what the law says.”
Christian van Thillo, Executive Chairman of DPG Media, delivered a stark message: “Big tech built empires by ignoring copyright and privacy rules, and today they’re doing the same with AI. Without compliance with the AI Act and rigorous enforcement, European culture and democracy will pay the price.”
Jesús Badenes del Río, CEO of Planeta Group’s Books Division, stressed that “full enforcement of copyright legal framework and development of AI models should not be seen as conflicting objectives. Respect for creativity requires strong and full transparency requirements about all works used for generative AI models. We should not forget that our society does not get best creative contents only from the benevolence of authors, but also from their regard to their own interest, as Adam Smith established in 1776 in his seminal work ‘The Wealth of Nations’. We encourage both European legislators and European Commission to act strategically regarding one of the real backbones of prosperity and democracy.”
Olivier Nusse, CEO of Universal Music France, highlighted that “a responsible AI serves artists and does not replace them. It collaborates with creators, not parasite them. It should elevate culture—not dilute it. Because without artists and writers, there is no culture to protect in the first place. Intellectual Property Rights are there to protect human creativity. Only music created by humans should receive intellectual property protection. Songs produced by AI without any creative input should not.”
The message: Stay True to the Act, Stay True to Culture
The event was part of the creative sector’s growing “Stay True to the Act, Stay True to Culture” campaign. This initiative underscores a shared call for transparency, consent, and remuneration to be at the heart of AI implementation. The coalition emphasised that AI and creativity can thrive together – if the rules respect the people whose work powers these technologies.
IMPALA was established in 2000 and now represents over 6000 independent music companies in Europe. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small, micro and medium businesses and self-releasing artists. Known as the independents, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases and account for 80% of the sector’s jobs. IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector sustainably, return more value to artists, promote diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access, inspire change, and increase access to finance. IMPALA works on a range of key issues for its members and started a new co-funded work programme as an EU cultural network in 2025. IMPALA runs various award schemes and has a programme aimed at businesses who want to develop a strategic relationship with the European independent sector – Friends of IMPALA
