Denmark

[DK] Declaration on the necessity of culture and media as a safeguard for our European democracies in the age of AI

IRIS 2026-1:1/21

Terese Foged

Legal expert

At an informal ministerial meeting in Copenhagen on 4 November 2025, held during the Danish EU Presidency, the Danish Minister for Culture gathered European ministers for culture and media. The ministers issued a joint statement: the “Declaration on the necessity of culture and media as a safeguard for our European democracies”. 

As part of its presidency, Denmark took a leading role in shaping the European response to the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on culture and media. As such, the declaration notably highlighted that:

- The use of AI in producing and distributing cultural and media content raises ethical, societal and economic questions and questions of reliability.

- Culture, cultural heritage, and media policies must be a vital part of European collaboration and security to protect our democracies.

This initiative followed an open letter dated 22 October 2025 from 29 Danish rights holder organisations to the Minister for Culture. The letter stressed, in particular, the crucial need for fair compensation for creators – such as writers, musicians, film-makers, and artists – in an AI-driven era, arguing that the current situation puts unsustainable pressure on the cultural value chain and the legal framework designed to protect rights holders and culture. The rights holder organisations also called for Denmark to demonstrate leadership in the EU by ensuring that copyright remains strong within new AI regulation, to meet the challenges posed by AI use of human-made content.

During the meeting held on 4 November, the Danish Minister for Culture also presented the September 2025 report from the Danish Expert Group on Copyright and AI to his European counterparts. The report contains several recommendations, with two in particular identified as especially relevant for EU-wide regulation:

- Mandatory arbitration in press publication rights disputes

- Clarification that providing AI systems constitutes communication to the public of the content on which the systems are trained. The Expert Group’s proposal also aims at ensuring that EU member states will have jurisdiction in AI court cases so that rights holders are not forced to start a court case in the US for example.

 


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This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.