Highlights from Last Week
CW 20 / Monday, 11th to Friday, 15th May: Mini Plenary Sessions (Brussels)
COVID-19: Last week, topics on the European Parliament’s plenary agenda included the mobile phone app for contact tracing, which was the subject of discussion with Commissioner D. Reynders and the Croatian Secretary of State N. Brnjac (Council). The MEPs’ main arguments were for a genuinely voluntary approach, a lack of discrimination, and transparency in the applications (video, press release).
The EU Commission presented a common approach for safe and efficient mobile contact tracing apps across the EU.
GDPR: As the updated version of the preview of the weekly Commission meeting revealed, the evaluation of the GDPR is to be deferred by one week to 10th June.
Artificial intelligence: In the JURI Committee, the initiative reports on AI were presented (video, press release). In the course of his presentation, A. Voss stated that the current EU liability system has worked well, but that the development of AI means that things are changing rapidly. However, he added that he does not believe that we need a massive legislative project at EU level, but rather that we should adapt the existing rules. He wanted to send a clear message to developers that there would be a transitional period and that the current rules would continue to apply in order to maintain innovation.
Digital Services Act: In an open letter, ten EU countries (D9+) called on the European Commission to strengthen the baseline principles of the e-Commerce directive in the forthcoming DSA.
“We wish to emphasise that the baseline principles of the e-Commerce Directive should not only be maintained, but should also be modernised in a targeted manner”, wrote Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.
The ten countries invoke the country-of-origin principle, the ban on general monitoring obligations, and the liability privilege.
Hate Speech: France passed its law to combat hate content last week (press release). It requires platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to remove reported content within 24 hours, and terrorist and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) reported by authorities within one hour. As with the GDPR, the threat of penalties amounts to up to 4% of worldwide annual turnover.
Fit for Future Platform:Last Monday the EU Commission published a call for experts for its F4F Platform. The deadline for the call is 19th June.
Women4Cyber: With the initiative Women4Cyber, the European Commission has published a database of female specialists in the field of cybersecurity.
Data leak: As was revealed on Friday, a server of the European People’s Party, which was updated two years ago, was openly accessible via the internet (see Politico), laying sensitive data (names, emails, encrypted passwords) of MEPs, staff and external parties open to exposure – and in total involving more than 16,000 data records. The security incident was uncovered and reported by an Indian cybersecurity company.
Relevant EP Think Tank Publications:
- BEREC Summary Report on the Status of Internet Capacity
- Potentially negative effects of internet use
- How to Fully Reap the Benefits of the Internal Market for E-Commerce?
- The e-commerce Directive as the cornerstone of the Internal Market
Outlook for the Coming Week
CW 21 / Monday, 18th to Friday, 22nd May: Yellow Week (Videoconferences).
You can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament here. A wide range of committee meetings will once again be taking place.
You can find an overview of the most important dates of the Council week here, the meeting calendar here, or the confirmed teleconference and videoconference dates here.
At the present point in time, agendas are unfortunately only available in some cases. Among these are:
- Informal videoconference of education ministers, Monday, 18th May;
- Informal videoconference of culture ministers, Tuesday, 19th May;
- Informal videoconference of youth ministers, Tuesday, 19th May;
- Informal videoconference of employment and social affairs ministers, Tuesday, 19th May;
- Informal videoconference of tourism ministers, Wednesday, 20th May;
- Coreper I, Wednesday, 20th May;
- Coreper II, Wednesday, 20th May.
Information about the weekly Commission meeting can still be found in the preview or (at short notice) in the current agenda. In the coming week, the following topics will be up for discussion:
- European Semester Spring Package (country-specific recommendations)
- EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
- ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy (‘From producer to consumer’)
- Just Transition Mechanism ‘Establishing the public sector loan blending facility’ of the Public Sector Credit Mixing Facility’.
The judicial calendar of the EUCJ can be found here.
LIBE Committee (EP)
Current Meetings
- Monday, 18th May 2020, 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00 (Brussels, videoconference)
Excerpts from the Current Agenda
18th May 2020, 10.05 – 10.45
Item 5. Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the opening of negotiations for an agreement between the European Union and New Zealand on the exchange of personal data between the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the New Zealand authorities competent for fighting serious crime and terrorism
LIBE/9/02647
| Rapporteur: | ||
| Annalisa Tardino (ID) | PR – PE650.351v01-00 | |
| Responsible: | ||
| LIBE | ||
- Consideration of draft report
…
18th May 2020, 14.00 – 15.30
Item 7. Europol’s work in combatting Covid-19 pandemic-induced criminal behaviour
LIBE/9/02968
- Presentation by Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director, Europol
18th May 2020, 15.30 – 16.00
Item 8. Artificial intelligence in education, culture and the audiovisual sector
LIBE/9/02290
| Rapporteur for the opinion: | |||
| Ondřej Kovařík (Renew) | PA – PE650.370v02-00 | ||
| Responsible: | |||
| CULT* – | Sabine Verheyen (PPE) | ||
- Consideration of draft opinion
- Deadline for tabling amendments: 26th May 2020, 12.00
Item 9. Digital Services Act: Improving the functioning of the Single Market
LIBE/9/02297
| Rapporteur for the opinion: | |||
| Paul Tang (S&D) | PA – PE650.375v01-00 | ||
| Responsible: | |||
| IMCO* – | Alex Agius Saliba (S&D) | PR – PE648.474v02-00 | |
- Consideration of draft opinion
- Deadline for tabling amendments: 19th May 2020, 12.00
Further Meetings (Calendar)
- Monday, 25th May 2020, 14.00-16.00 (Brussels)
JURI Committee (EP)
Current Meetings
- None
Further Meetings (Calendar)
- Monday, 25th May 2020, 9.00-11.00 and 12.00-13.00 (Brussel, videoconference)
- Monday, 8th June 2020 (Brussels)
Preview of the upcoming agenda
25th May 2020, 9.00 – 10.00
Item 1. Adoption of agenda
Item 2. Exchange of views in the context of structured dialogue with Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market
25th May 2020, 10.00 – 11.00
Item 3. Exchange of views in the context of structured dialogue with Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency
25th May 2020, 12.00 – 13.00
Item 4. Exchange of views in the context of structured dialogue with Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.
Dossiers Timetable (15th May 2020)
ITRE Committee (EP)
Current Meetings
- Tuesday, 19th May 2020, 14.00-16.00 (Brussels, videoconference)
Excerpts from the Current Agenda
The agenda does not currently contain any topics of relevance to the Internet industry.
Further Meetings (Calendar)
- Thursday, 28th May 2020, 11.00-13.00 (Brussels)
Dossiers Timetable (5th May 2020)
IMCO Committee (EP)
Current Meetings
- Monday, 18th May 2020 (Brussels, videoconference)
- Wednesday, 20th May 2020 (Brussels, videoconference)
Excerpts from the Current Agendas
18th May 2020, 14.00 – 15.20
Item 4. Exchange of views with Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, on the EU Exit Strategy
18th May 2020, 15.20 – 16.00
Item 5. Addressing product safety in the Single Market
IMCO/9/02081
| Rapporteur: | ||
| Marion Walsmann (PPE) | PR – PE647.016v01-00 | |
| Responsible: | ||
| IMCO | ||
- Exchange of views
Item 6. Framework of ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies
IMCO/9/02262
| Rapporteur for the opinion: | |||
| Alexandra Geese (Verts/ALE) | PA – PE648.496v01-00 | ||
| Responsible: | |||
| JURI* – | Ibán García Del Blanco (S&D) |
PR – PE650.508v01-00 | |
- Consideration of draft opinion
- Deadline for tabling amendments: 19th May 2020, 12.00
20th May 2020, 18.00 – 18.45
Item 7. Digital Services Act: Improving the functioning of the Single Market
IMCO/9/02293
| Rapporteur: | |||
| Alex Agius Saliba (S&D) | PR – PE648.474v02-00 | ||
| Responsible: | |||
| IMCO* | |||
| Opinions: | |||
| ITRE* | Decision: no opinion | ||
| TRAN* | Josianne Cutajar (S&D) | PA – PE648.502v02-00 AM – PE650.671v01-00 |
|
| CULT* | Petra Kammerevert (S&D) | PA – PE648.287v01-00 AM – PE650.393v01-00 |
|
| JURI* | Patrick Breyer (Verts/ALE) | ||
| LIBE* | Paul Tang (S&D) | PA – PE650.375v01-00 | |
- Further consideration of draft report
Item 8. Civil liability regime for artificial intelligence
IMCO/9/02276
| Rapporteur for the opinion: | |||
| Svenja Hahn (Renew) | PA – PE648.381v01-00 | ||
| Responsible: | |||
| JURI – | Axel Voss (PPE) | PR – PE650.556v01-00 | |
- Consideration of draft opinion
- Deadline for tabling amendments: 26th May 2020, 12.00
Further Meetings (Calendar)
- Monday, 8th June 2020, 14.00-16.00 (Brussels)
Dossiers Timetable(22nd April 2020)
CULT Committee (EP)
Current Meetings
- None
Further Meetings (Calendar)
- Open
Further Scheduled Parliamentary Calendar Dates
- CW 22 / Monday, 25th to Friday, 29th May: Yellow Week (Videoconferences);
- CW 23 / Tuesday, 2nd to Friday, 5th June: Yellow Week (Videoconferences);
- CW 24 / Monday, 8th to Thursday, 11th June: Political Group and Committee Meetings (Brussels).
