On virtual worlds – opportunities, risks and policy implications for the single market

The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1.Believes that virtual worlds or ‘metaverses’ are a major step forward in the digital transition, and that they can be defined as a simulation of real-time, immersive 3D or 2D spaces in which users can interact;

2.Calls for the EU to adopt a comprehensive strategy for virtual worlds, building on the strengths of its industry to overcome the hardware and software challenges, while harnessing the innovation and progress of the video game industry;

3.Calls for the EU, in view of the strategic autonomy considerations raised by virtual worlds, to ensure substantial investment in this field; notes that the Horizon Europe and Creative Europe programmes both fund augmented and virtual reality projects; points out, however, that the budgets of these programmes are inadequate to foster a real EU strategy for immersive technologies;

4.Emphasises the importance of developing metaverses for the EU’s cultural and creative ecosystems, as new spaces for creativity and expression; insists on ensuring the accessibility of metaverses in order to make them truly democratic spaces;

5.States that virtual worlds can significantly impact education and research by transforming how we acquire knowledge; stresses that metaverses can allow for better visualisation of educational content, increased possibilities for collaboration between learners and enhanced distance and lifelong learning;

6.Stresses that an EU strategy for virtual worlds must go hand in hand with an appropriate framework to ensure the protection and promotion of intellectual property; notes that most intellectual property systems in the metaverse are based on blockchain technology, and believes that non-fungible tokens can represent a new source of revenue for the EU’s cultural ecosystem.