The View from Brussels #188

Highlights from the Past Week

CW 46 / Monday, 15 to Thursday, 18 November: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);

DIGITAL MARKETS ACT I – PARLIAMENT TO AGREE ON TEXT: On Monday, the Internal Market Committee is to vote on the DMA text. In the past few days, the media has already reported that negotiations have been concluded. But as late as Friday, final touches were being ironed out.

On Thursday, the decision on the general approach to the DMA will also be on the Council’s agenda.

In the Parliament’s report (version from 17 November, PDF), it proposes raising the thresholds to 8 billion Euro in turnover and 80 billion Euro in market value. The Council has not altered the Commission’s proposal (6.5 and 65 billion Euro, respectively).

In addition, the IMCO report proposes to define web browsers, virtual assistants and connected TVs as a “core platform service” and, as such, to have these included in the scope of application.

DIGITAL MARKETS ACT II – TASK FORCE BEGINS WORK: After recently having come into effect, the work of the Commission’s Task Force on the DMA is now underway. Speaking as part of the AmCham Competition Conference, Thomas Kramler, Head of the E-Commerce Unit at the Directorate General for Competition, highlighted the importance of the team getting a head start on important preparatory work for the Digital Markets Act, leading up to its probable adoption early next year.

“The first task is to help in the process of getting the DMA adopted”, Kramler said. The second task will then be “to prepare the implementation”, he added, noting that “very profound issues” such as establishing the complaint handling system and ensuring efficient staffing to meet the increased workload after adoption would be prioritised. “The task force will also have to begin work on some implementing acts that would have to be done before the DMA can enter into force”, Kramler added. (see Politico Pro, paywall)

DIGITAL SERVICES ACT – LONG LIST OF REQUESTS FOR COUNCIL: After COREPER approved the position last week, the general approach on the DSA (PDF) is to be adopted in the Council on Thursday, alongside the DMA.

Its recitals include a 24-hour deadline for the removal of hate content reported by trusted flaggers. The total number of flaggers to be appointed by the respective national digital services coordinators is to be limited. The Council also wants to create a separate category for very large search engines.

While the Council has thereby effectively ended the negotiations, the Member States – above all Denmark, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and Hungary – still have a (relatively long) list of requests (PDF) that they want to have accommodated in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, discussions in the EU Parliament are ongoing. As Politico Pro (paywall) reports, last week’s negotiations included the following proposals:

• Compensation for users when online marketplaces do not comply with the DSA, rather than general liability.
• Opt-out option in data use for users of online platforms, where data may not be used for direct marketing, profiling and behavioural targeting of
• Sanction options for the Commission against large platforms, in case of repeated failure to address systemic risks to fundamental rights, public health and disinformation.
• Option for online platforms to request exemptions to waive additional obligations with regard to transparency, trusted flaggers, third-party vendors, and advertising, in cases where these do not pose significant systemic risk, are nonprofit or “play a clearly positive role in the public sphere,” have fewer than 250 employees, and generate less than 500 Euro million in revenue.

The current plan is for a vote in the Internal Market Committee on December 9 and for adoption in plenary in January 2022.

Meanwhile, the French Digital Minister, Cédric O, remains optimistic and still considers a conclusion of the negotiations under the French Council Presidency by June 2022 to be possible.

ONLINE ADVERTISING – IMCO WORKING GROUP: Last Friday, the IMCO Working Group on the Digital Single Market met in the European Parliament to discuss the issue of targeted online advertising (agenda, PDF). Various experts from the industry were invited (video).

ECJ – ADVOCATE GENERAL REJECTS GERMAN BLANKET DATA RETENTION: In his Opinion on the proceedings of SpaceNet (C-793/19) and Telekom Deutschland (C-794/19), Advocate General C. Sánchez-Bordona interpreted previous ECJ precedents as only permitting data retention in the event of a serious threat to national security. He construed that even the time-limited retention of a large amount of connection data, as allowed in Germany, would already interfere too much with fundamental rights and private life.

In his Opinion, the Advocate General voiced surprise that several ECJ Member States continue to call for blanket data retention, despite the clear ECJ rulings.

EPRIVACY – TRILOGUE MAKES SMALL PROGRESS: Last week, the political trilogue on the ePrivacy Regulation took place. The discussion focused on Chapters III, V and VI, which are certainly not the most contentious issues of the negotiations (i.e. data retention, cookies, enforcement). Although some progress was made, no agreement was reached, as technical details remained unclear. While technical meetings are now scheduled for December, there will be no further political trilogues under the Slovenian presidency due to reasons of scheduling. (see Euractiv)

GREEN DEAL – COUNCIL GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO 10 EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIPS: The Council of the European Union gave the green light to the establishment of ten European Partnerships, namely “Joint Undertakings”, between the European Union, Member States and/or the industry (including digital key technologies, clean hydrogen, smart networks and services).

The EU will provide funding of nearly 10 billion Euro from Horizon Europe, which the partners will match with at least an equivalent amount of investment. This combined contribution is expected to mobilise additional investments in the areas of health, transport, energy, digital technology and metrology, create jobs and growth, and generate a long-term positive impact on the environment and the society. (see COM press release)

CODE OF PRACTICE ON DISINFORMATION – NEW SIGNATORIES: 16 prospective signatories have joined the revision process of the Code of Practice on Disinformation: Twitch, Adobe, Havas, The Bright App, Neeva, Reporters Without Borders, VOST Europe, the Netherlands Organization for Applied Natural Science Research, Maldita, PagellaPolitica, Demagog, MediaMath, Integral Ad Science, the GARM Initiative, Crisp Thinking and Newsback. (see press release COM)

DIGITAL EUROPE PROGRAMME – COMMISSION PUBLISHES FIRST CALLS FOR PROPOSALS: The EU Commission has published the first calls for proposals under the Digital Europe Programme. The calls are addressed to businesses, organisations and public administrations. Proposals can be submitted in the fields of digital technology, cybersecurity and for building the network of European digital innovation hubs. Over 415 million Euro will be invested under these calls by the end of 2022. Further calls will be published in early 2022.

OPEN RAN – PRESENTATION BY A COALITION: A coalition of telecom operators (Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia (TIM), Telefónica and Vodafone) published a paper (PDF) last week arguing for the need to make open radio access networks (RANs) a priority for the European connectivity strategy.

It is the operators’ view that the flexible and open architecture of Open RAN would be an important driver for a competitive digital infrastructure in Europe. They also call for high-level political support, the creation of a European Alliance on Next Generation Communication Infrastructures by the European Commission, further incentives for the development of Open Radio Access Networks, and a stronger European leadership role in the development of international standards.

COMPETITION LAW – COMMISSION PUBLISHES AGENDA: The European Commission has published its agenda on how to enhance its antitrust rules. The communication confirms the relaxation of state aid rules for what concerns broadband investments and points to the complementarity of the DMA with competition enforcement.

An interesting reference has been added on “killer acquisitions”, noting how companies that have little to no turnover should also be considered for antitrust probes when such takeovers could disrupt the market. (see Euractiv).

COPYRIGHT – IRELAND TRANSPOSES DSM DIRECTIVE: In Ireland, the national transposition of the Copyright Directive entered into force on November 12. The text of the Irish transposition can be found here (PDF).

Relevant Publications, including from the EP Think Tank:

• Artificial Intelligence Act (Briefing)
• Fit for 55 package: Energy from renewable sources (Briefing)
• European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (At a Glance)
• Parliamentary Question on Pegasus Spyware (and Answer on behalf of the Commission, PDF)

Outlook for the Coming Week

 

You can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament here and an overview of the plenary sessions week here. This will once again take place in hybrid form.The provisional meeting calendar for 2022 can be found here (PDF).

An overview of the most important dates of the Council week can be found here, the meeting calendar is accessible here, the list of the main topics for the coming 14 days is available here, and an overview of the Slovenian Presidency can be found here (PDF).

Included among these dates are:

Summit and Ministry Meetings:

• General Affairs Council (incl. Commission’s 2022 Work Programme), Tuesday, 23 November – Agenda, A Items, A Items, addition 1;
• Competitiveness Council (incl. DSA, DMA, Fit for 55), Thursday, 25 and Friday, 26 November – Agenda;

Preparatory Bodies:

• Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues (NIS2), Monday, 22 November and Wednesday, 24 November;
• Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society (incl. Path to the Digital Decade, Interoperability), Tuesday, 23 November;
• Working Party on Tax Questions (Indirect Taxation), Wednesday, 24 November;
• COREPER I (incl. NIS2, AI, e-ID, Path to the Digital Decade, Fit for 55, DGA, Roaming), Wednesday, 24 November;
• COREPER II, Wednesday, 24 November;

Information about the weekly Commission meeting can be found in the preview (PDF) or (at short notice) in the current agenda. One topic of particular relevance is the “Security and Justice in the Digital World” package (scheduled for 1 December).

The following topics are scheduled for the coming week:

• European Semester autumn package
• Capital Markets Union
  • Communication “Capital Markets Union – Delivering one year after the Action Plan”
  • Proposal for a Directive/Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council for a European single access point for financial and non-financial information publicly disclosed by companies (ESAP)
  • European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) framework review
  • Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) review
  • Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) review
• EU response to the situation at the EU’s external borders with Belarus
• Reinforcing democracy and integrity of elections package
  • Protecting election integrity and promoting democratic participation
  • Revision of the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations
  • Amendment to Council Directive 93/109/EC on the right to vote in the European elections
  • Amendment to Council Directive 94/80/EC on the right to vote in municipal elections
  • Greater transparency in paid political advertising

You can find the judicial calendar of the ECJ here.

European Parliament Committees

CW 47 / Monday, 22 to Thursday, 25 November: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg);

LIBE Committee (EP)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Monday, 29 November 2021, 15.45-18.45 (Brussels)
• Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 9.00-12.00 (Brussels)
• Thursday, 9 December 2021, 9.00-12.00 (Brussels)

JURI Committee  (EP)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Wednesday/Thursday, 1/2 December 2021 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (12 November 2021)

 

ITRE Committee  (EP)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 9.00-12.00, 13.45-15.45 and 16.45-18.45 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (27 October 2021)

 

IMCO Committee  (EP)

• Monday, 22 November 2021, 19.00-21.00

Excerpts from the Draft Agenda

…

*** Voting time ***

3. Contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act)

IMCO/9/04998

***I 2020/0374(COD) COM(2020)0842 – C9-0419/2020

 

Rapporteur:
	Andreas Schwab (PPE)		PR – PE692.792v01-00 AM – PE695.196v01-00 AM – PE695.143v01-00 AM – PE695.197v01-00 AM – PE695.198v01-00
Responsible:
	IMCO*

• Adoption of draft report

4. Tackling non-tariff and non-tax barriers in the Single Market

IMCO/9/05869

2021/2043(INI)

 

Rapporteur:
	Kosma Złotowski (ECR)		PR – PE692.811v01-00 AM – PE696.420v01-00
Responsible:
	IMCO

• Adoption of draft report

…

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 9.30-12.30 and 13.45-15.45 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (September 2021)

 

CULT Committee  (EP)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Wednesday/Thursday, 1/2 December 2021 (Brussels)

AIDA Committee (EP) – Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Tuesday, 30 November 2021, 16.45-18.45 (Brussels)

Overview of the Hearings

 

INGE (EP) – Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation

Current Meetings

• Monday, 15 November 2021, 16.45-18.45 (Brussels) – Recording

Excerpts from the Draft Agenda

…

5. Hearing on disinformation and conspiracy theories: vaccination, climate change, migration, etc.– Chine Labbe, Managing Editor & Vice President Partnerships, Europe, NewsGuard Technologies– Katarína Klingová, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Democracy & Resilience, Globsec- Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology in Society, Director of Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge- Alberto Neidhardt, Policy Analyst in the European Migration and Diversity programme and Paul Butcher, Policy Analyst in the European Politics and Institutions programme, European Policy Centre

…

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Open

Overview of the Hearings

 

Further Scheduled Parliamentary Calendar Dates

• CW 48 / Monday, 29 November to Thursday, 2 December: Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);
• CW 49 / Monday, 6 to Thursday, 9. November: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);
• CW 50 / Monday, 13 to Thursday, 16 December: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg).