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European Union · Guidance

European Commission — Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI

Published1 April 2019

Issued by European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG).

Summary

The European Commission’s Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI introduced a framework that defined trustworthy AI as lawful, ethical, and technically robust. Developed by the High-Level Expert Group on AI, the guidelines shaped European thinking on risk, oversight, transparency, accountability, and human-centred design. They provided a bridge between broad ethics principles and the more formal regulatory architecture that later informed the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The document is a key pre-2023 foundation for Europe’s binding approach to AI governance.

Why it matters

Trustworthy AI framework; lawful, ethical, and technically robust AI; human agency and oversight; transparency; accountability; robustness and safety; foundations for later EU AI Act structures.

Governance themes

Topics

Record metadata

Country
European Union
Region
Europe
Organisation
European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG)
Governance themes
AI governance, Transparency, Accountability, Safety, Human rights, Risk management
Document type
Guidance
Status
Published
Publication date
1 April 2019
Last updated
29 June 2026
Language
English
Original source
View original source

Citation export

Plain citation

European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI, Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, April 2019.

BibTeX

@misc{eu_ethics_guidelines_trustworthy_ai_2019,
  title        = {European Commission — Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI},
  author       = {European Commission High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG)},
  year         = {2019},
  howpublished = {Global AI Governance Archive},
  url          = {https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai}
}

See the citation guide for style-specific examples.

Recorded cross-references

  • EU Artificial Intelligence Act Political Agreement
  • Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
  • OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence

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