The European Commission has introduced a new initiative entitled 'An EU Initiative on Virtual Worlds: A Head Start towards the Next Technological Transition.' The goal of the initiative is to explore the potential of virtual worlds and their impact on society, industry, and culture. The Commission aims to utilise Europe's strengths in virtual world technologies to create an open, interoperable, secure, and trustworthy ecosystem while providing a framework to safeguard users and SMEs from potential threats and enable them to innovate in a safe environment. One of the risks identified by the Commission is the potential for a few dominant players to act as gatekeepers in the virtual world market, thereby hindering the progress of EU startups and SMEs. The EU has a robust regulatory framework to address these concerns, and the initiative seeks to build upon it to develop a comprehensive policy that addresses these issues.

To refine the initiative's content, the Commission will use feedback from stakeholders and the public. This document is for informational purposes only, and the final decision on whether to pursue this initiative and its content is subject to change.