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DRAFT OPINION (2022/2198(INI))

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

CULT-PA-746918

Committee on Culture and Education · Rapporteur: Laurence Farreng

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 26 Sept 2026

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The Committee on Culture and Education's draft opinion asks the internal market committee to include its suggestions in a resolution on virtual worlds. It calls for an EU strategy for virtual worlds, more investment, accessible cultural spaces, education benefits and intellectual property protection.

Committee position. The Committee on Culture and Education proposes that the internal market committee include its suggestions in a resolution: an EU strategy for virtual worlds, substantial investment, accessible cultural spaces, education benefits and intellectual property protection.

Key points

  1. Defines virtual worlds or 'metaverses' as a simulation of real-time, immersive 3D or 2D spaces where users can interact, and calls them a major step forward in the digital transition.
  2. Calls for the EU to adopt a comprehensive strategy for virtual worlds, building on its industry's strengths and on the video game industry's innovation.
  3. Calls for substantial EU investment in virtual worlds for strategic autonomy, and says Horizon Europe and Creative Europe budgets are inadequate for a real EU strategy on immersive technologies.
  4. Emphasises developing metaverses as new spaces for creativity and expression in the EU's cultural and creative ecosystems, and insists on accessibility to make them truly democratic.
  5. States virtual worlds can transform education and research through better visualisation of content, more collaboration between learners and enhanced distance and lifelong learning.
  6. Stresses that an EU strategy must include a framework to protect and promote intellectual property, and believes non-fungible tokens can be a new revenue source for the EU's cultural ecosystem.

Who is affected

  • The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, which is asked to incorporate these suggestions into its resolution.
  • The EU's cultural and creative ecosystems, for which metaverses are presented as new spaces for creativity and revenue.
  • Education and research, which the text says can be transformed by virtual worlds.