News, Publications and Consultations from the Past Week
News CW 13 (23–29 March 2026)
Disinformation: The signatories to the Code of Conduct on Disinformation have published their reports for the period 1 July–31 December 2025.
Chips Act: Led by Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, a dialogue on the implementation of the Chips Act took place on Thursday. Possible improvements, additions and simplification measures were also discussed.
Chat control: The European Parliament has voted against extending voluntary chat control. The derogation will therefore expire on 3 April 2026.
Social media: A social media ban for children under 14 is set to be introduced in Austria. A draft act on the technical implementation is expected by the end of June.
Social media: The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, has warned against restricting children’s access to social media. He argued that this raises human rights issues, as children, like everyone else, have the right to receive information.
Patents: The European Patent Office has announced that computer technology (including patent applications for AI involving neural network technologies and image recognition, as well as quantum technology) remained the leading field in 2025 with 17,844 applications (+6.1%). Digital communication (including inventions for mobile networks) took second place and recorded the strongest overall growth among the leading fields (+11.4%).
Transatlantic relations: The US government is pressing the EU for fresh talks on relaxing the DSA and DMA, as it views the European digital rules as a burden on American companies and a barrier to trade. Andrew Puzder is linking this politically to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and is calling for more concrete steps from Brussels. Leading MEPs and the Commission, however, clearly reject this and emphasise that the rules were adopted democratically and are an expression of European sovereignty. They also warn that American pressure on trade and energy issues is likely to strengthen resistance in Europe. The transatlantic conflict over whether the EU should water down its tech regulation or, on the contrary, enforce it more consistently, is intensifying.
Digital Trade Agreement: The EU and the 12 CPTPP member states intend to begin talks on a digital trade agreement designed, among other things, to establish rules for digital services, electronic contracts and data handling. The initiative is seen as a significant geopolitical step by two major trading blocs which, in light of the pressures on the global trading system, wish to cooperate more closely and actively shape digital trade rules.
DSA: The European Commission is stepping up enforcement of the Digital Services Act in relation to the protection of minors, taking action against both social media platforms and adult content platforms. Formal proceedings have been initiated against Snapchat because, in the Commission’s view, the platform does not sufficiently protect children and young people from grooming, criminal recruitment, problematic default settings and harmful content. At the same time, the Commission has provisionally concluded that Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos make it too easy for minors to access pornographic content, as simple self-declarations of age are insufficient. In both cases, Brussels makes it clear that platforms must implement effective, age-appropriate and data protection-compliant safeguards. In doing so, the Commission is sending a clear signal that the protection of minors in the digital space is one of the key priorities of DSA enforcement.
Selected Publications from the EP Think Tanks
- Digital Omnibus Regulation on AI: What stance is the Parliament taking?
- Digital Omnibus on AI
- Artificial Intelligence in Classrooms: Ethical Dimensions
- Artificial Intelligence in Classrooms: Cognitive Dimensions
- Artificial Intelligence in Classrooms: Pedagogical Dimensions
- Plenary round-up – March II 2026
- Public hearing with Andrew Bailey, Chair of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) – 9 April 2026
Ongoing Relevant European Commission Consultations
- Regulation on Artificial Intelligence – detailed rules on evaluations and procedures (until 9 April 2026)
- European Critical Communications System (until 10 April 2026)
- Draft Commission guidance on the Cyber Resilience Act (until 13 April 2026)
- EU Initiative for Global Health Resilience (until 13 April 2026)
- Directive on the protection of whistleblowers – consultation (until 22 April 2026)
- Energy efficiency – Evaluation system for data centres in Europe (until 23 April 2026)
- Audiovisual media services – evaluation and update of EU rules (until 1 May 2026)
- European Business Wallet: digital identity, secure data exchange and secure legally binding notifications for easy digital business transactions (until 6 May 2026)
- The EU Cybersecurity Act (until 12 May 2026)
- Digital Networks Act (until 22 May 2026)
- Electronic invoicing – revision of EU rules (until 10 June 2026)
- Post-2030 energy efficiency legal framework (until 12 June 2026)
Selections of the Current Week, CW 14 (30 March–5 April 2026)
Council:
You can find the latest outlook on the Council’s work for the coming days up to 12 April 2026 here.
Summits and ministerial meetings:
- Informal Ministerial Meeting on ‘Competitiveness’ (Research), 31 March 2026, Agenda
Preparatory Bodies:
- Antici Group (Simplification), 30 March 2026, Agenda
- Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, 30 March 2026, Agenda
- COREPER I, 31 March 2026, Agenda
- Working Party on Tax Questions (Indirect Taxation – VAT), 31 March 2026, Agenda
- Working Party on e-Justice, 31 March 2026, Agenda
- WP on Hybrid Threats, 31 March 2026
- CORPER II, 1 April 2026, Agenda
- CORPER I, 1 April 2026, Agenda
- Antici Group (Simplification), 1 April 2026, Agenda
An overview of the various Council meetings can be found here.
Commission:
The agenda for the current Commission meeting was not available at the time of writing. You may be able to find it at short notice on the Commission’s website.
Parliament:
Plenary Sittings
There are no plenary sessions of the European Parliament this week.
Here you will find the current schedule for the current week in the European Parliament. The calendar of sessions for 2026 is available here.
Committees
LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)
No meeting of the LIBE Committee is scheduled for this week.
You can find the LIBE Committee’s timetables here.
JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)
No meeting of the JURI Committee scheduled for this week.
The JURI Committee’s timetable can be found here.
No meeting of the ITRE Committee is scheduled for this week.
The current timetables (as of 24 March 2026) for the ITRE Committee can be found here.
IMCO Committee (Internal Market)
No meeting of the IMCO Committee is scheduled for this week.
The current timetables (as of 26 February 2026) for the IMCO Committee can be found here.
CULT Committee (Culture and Education)
No meeting of the CULT Committee is scheduled for this week.
The current timetables (as of 2 March 2026) for the CULT Committee can be found here.
Outlook:
An overview of the upcoming session weeks can be found here. The provisional agenda for the forthcoming plenary session can be found here.
European Court of Justice
You can find the judicial calendar of the CJEU here.
