What the law leaves to ethics: two independent opinions on ethics screening in Europe for the Age of AI

Two independent opinions on the ethics screening of research for European Commission funding, written in a personal capacity by a member and co-rapporteur of the panels, submitted to the European Commission on 28 July 2026, and introduced here as a pair. The first opinion takes the external dimension, the treatment of artificial intelligence under the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Digital Omnibus on AI; the second takes the internal dimension, the independence of the panel and the room for reflection, dissent, and withholding. Where the law withdraws a duty bearing on human capability while retaining the specifiable controls, it marks its boundary and names ethics review as what governs beyond it. What the law increasingly leaves to ethics, ethics must be equipped to carry. Published in the GCPA-SIDCER series Science, Policy, and Ethics in Conversation.This paper was prepared under the author's direction with the assistance of several AI systems, including various models of Claude, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and DeepSeek. The models assisted with ideation, structuring, drafting, language editing, literature search, and critique. Drafting, analysis, and interpretation were carried out by the author. The ideas expressed here are, unless cited or referenced, those of the author. All normative claims are those of the author. Facts and citations were verified by the author, who takes full responsibility for the work. A structured statement is deposited with the record as a machine-readable object.