#13: What's next for Metaverse Policy?
2023 Policy Review
Around the world, governments are trying to make sense of the metaverse. But no one had a busier year than the EU.
In 2023, the European Commission published a bloc-wide strategy to support the development of virtual worlds, and two of the European Parliament’s committees published their own initiatives.
Meanwhile, member states like France and Germany took steps toward national policies—with Finland leading the way by publishing its own national metaverse strategy.
Throughout the year, EU policy wonks enjoyed a wealth of research papers, government reports, reports, opinions, amendments and compromises, public consultations, and more.
📄 Check out all of the EU documents we’ve been tracking here!
Key milestones:
24 Apr: For six weeks, the European Commission ran a citizens panel—a giant focus group of 150 people from across the EU—on virtual worlds, culminating in a report of 23 citizen recommendations.
Metaverse EU was invited to observe these sessions.
11 Jul: After announcing its initiative in September 2022, the Commission published its strategy on virtual worlds, promising 10 key actions.
28 Nov: The European Parliament’s Internal Markets and Consumer Protection Committee passed its own initiative report on virtual worlds.
The rapporteur declared input from Metaverse EU
11 Dec: The Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee passed its own initiative report on virtual words.
Both co-rapporteurs declared input from Metaverse EU.
What’s next?
2024 marks a transition year for the EU. In June, citizens from 27 member states will elect and re-elect 720 members of Parliament. The lower house will then work with the Council to approve a new Commission for the 2024-2029 term.
The institutions will agree to a Strategic Agenda, laying out their priorities for the new mandate. In that time, at least 7 member states (🇫🇮, 🇵🇹, 🇸🇰, 🇱🇹, 🇧🇪, 🇭🇷, 🇦🇹) will hold national elections.
Given the busy schedule, what metaverse-related policies will progress?
2024 guess-pectations:
UPDATE: Shortly after publication of this edition, the Commission announced a call for contributions on “Competition in Virtual Worlds and Generative AI”. The deadline to submit is 11 March 2024.
Q1—The European Commission will launch a member states’ expert group to facilitate the sharing of best practices.
Q1—The European Commission will publish a virtual worlds toolbox to provide guidance on trustworthy virtual worlds technologies.
Q1—The EU will continue to leverage existing funding streams—Horizon Europe, Creative Europe, and the Digital Europe Programme—for metaverse-related projects.
Q2—The European Commission will promote “virtual worlds regulatory sandboxes”. Among member states, Belgium is most likely to announce a pilot.
Q2—The Belgian Presidency of the Council will study key aspects of virtual worlds, such as digital identities, and try to re-boot the development of EU-wide blockchain infrastructure.
Q3—The new Commission will include more virtual worlds initiatives in their 2025 Work Programme. Under pressure from parliamentary committees, the initiatives will focus on the impact of virtual worlds on the single market, the well-being of vulnerable users, and intellectual property.
Into the EU metaverse…
(More!) Policy
🇫🇷🇩🇪 EuroXR—a business association—published two joint letters, co-signed by 42 organisations, to support the EU’s work on Virtual Worlds.
🇫🇷 France Immersive Learning, an association promoting immersive tech in education, spoke with Euractiv about the risk of Europe becoming dependent on American and Asian competitors.
Extended! For those interested in shaping international metaverse standards, the deadline to participate in the UN ITU’s “Metaverse for All” survey has been extended until the end of January.
Business
🇩🇰 The LEGO Group launched a child-friendly version of Fortnite in collaboration with the company.
🇩🇪 Mercedes teamed up with Qualcomm to develop a VR tour of a Formula 1 garage.
🇪🇺 Leen Segers, Managing Director of ForsCV, a venture capital fund, revealed a list of “Europe’s unsung heroes and heroines”—European metaverse startups whom prominent US players have acquired:
We’re looking for a contributor to join our team! Help us spice up our newsletter and research the latest trends and news on all things metaverse in the EU. If you:
Love diving into the world of immersive tech ✔️ Want to help inform and shape future policy ✔️ Want to be part of a fun and innovative project ✔️ Have some spare time (and/or passion!) ✔️ … Then drop us a line: patrick@metaversepolicy.eu
Events
16 Jan (panel) Enabling virtual worlds and augmented interaction in high-impact applications to support the realisation of Industry 5.0 (online)
14 Feb Foundation Metaverse Europe Expert Symposium (Brussels 🇧🇪)
22 Feb CERRE Foundation Summit (Brussels 🇧🇪)
26 Feb – 29 Feb Mobile World Capital Barcelona (Barcelona 🇪🇸)
10 Apr – 14 Apr Laval Virtual (Laval 🇫🇷)
8 May ARVR Innovate Conference (Dublin 🇮🇪)
29 – 30 Oct AWE EU 2024 (Vienna 🇦🇹)
⏳ Let us know if you have a conference or panel you’d like to share!