The View from Brussels #218

Highlights from the Past Week

CW 26 / Monday, 27 to Thursday, 30 June: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);

DIGITAL MARKETS AND DIGITAL SERVICES ACT – EP VOTE: Ahead of the plenary vote on 5 July, the European Parliament has presented a final version (PDF) of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) with technical amendments aimed at improving compliance. In Article 30 of the new version dated from 27 June, there is a legal obligation for gatekeepers to hire a compliance officer; otherwise, they would run the risk of fines of up to 1 percent of their total worldwide turnover. This was not included in the earlier version of 12 May.

On the afternoon of 4 July, the European Parliament will hold a debate on both the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the DMA, before voting on the texts the following day. Both acts also need to be ratified by EU Member States before they are published in the Official Journal of the Union, which is likely to take place in October.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – RAPPORTEURS NEED TIME: Last week, the debate on the AI report took place in the LIBE and IMCO committees. As well known, about 3,300 amendments have been tabled. Accordingly, the rapporteurs are somewhat non-committal about the finalisation. D. Tudorache expressed his restraint at an event at the Spanish Sandbox and described October as a very optimistic timeline. However, he expressed hope for an adoption of the report in parliament before the end of the year. (video)

E-EVIDENCE – FRANCE MAKES PROGRESS AT THE END OF ITS PRESIDENCY: Last Thursday was the last day of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU. France had also hoped that this would be the day of the last trilogue on cross-border access to electronic evidence (e-evidence). While this did not happen, a political agreement on various priorities was at least achieved. (see EP press release)

France has revitalised the momentum of the trilogues in the last six months. One agreement concerned the following: if the state which requests the evidence is that state where the suspect resides, the state where the service storing the evidence is based will not receive notification and thus cannot block the request.

DATA ACT – ALLOCATION SETTLED IN THE EU PARLIAMENT: On 30 June, the Conference of Political Group Leaders (COP) approved the recommendations on the allocation of competences for the Data Act involving the lead Industry Committee (ITRE), the Internal Market Committee (IMCO) and the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI).

However, the EPP and the ITRE Committee requested and obtained a last-minute amendment. This amendment concerns the first sentence of Article 4.6, which states that “the data holder shall only use any non-personal data generated by the use of a product or related service on the basis of a contractual agreement with the user”. JURI must ultimately settle for shared competences with ITRE. (see Contexte, paywall, FR)

CHIPS ACT – PRESENTATION OF ECON’S OPINION: MEP Maydell has submitted her draft opinion on the Chips Act (PDF). The Bulgarian MEP is an influential voice on the file, as she is also the EPP’s shadow rapporteur in the Industry Committee (ITRE) and leads the “joint undertaking” part of the policy package.

In her opinion, Maydell proposes to narrow the scope of the crisis mechanism included in the legislation, aligning the definition of crisis-relevant product to that of the Resilience of Critical Identities Directive and introducing a precise definition of crisis that could only be triggered with an assessment report. She also wants Integrated Production Facilities to commit to long-term investments in technological developments and companies to appeal if the European Semiconductor Board and the Commission revoke their IPF status. Moreover, an early warning mechanism would be set up by the Board in consultation with the industry. Maydell also proposed creating a single point of contact for the Commission to exchange with the stakeholders on significant fluctuations in demand. (see Euractiv)

EDPB – CONSULTATION ON DATA TRANSFER GUIDELINES: At its June plenary session, the European Data Protection Board adopted several documents, including “Guidelines on certification as a tool for transfers” (PDF). The consultation on this document is open until 30 September.

The EDPB also responded (PDF) to a request from the European Digital Rights (EDRi) stakeholder group for guidelines on the implementation of the GDPR by national data protection authorities. The board acknowledged that “different procedural rules, different data protection cultures and different market situations” pose challenges for the consistent application of the GDPR, but that it is working to “bridge these differences and provide guidelines for consistent application”.

EU COMMISSION – ANNOUNCEMENT OF DIGITAL STRATEGY: The European Commission announced its (internal) Digital Transformation Strategy last week. The declared objectives aim to foster a digital culture, implement digitally-ready EU policies, empower a business-driven transformation, ensure a sustainable and seamless digital environment, and create a green, secure and resilient infrastructure. (see Euractiv)

GERMANY – LAUNCH OF “MOBILITHEK” DATA PLATFORM: On 1 July, the “Mobilithek” mobility data platform of the German digital ministry went online. It is intended to provide central access to mobility data, including real-time data. According to Wissing, the Federal Minister of Digital Affairs, data “forms the basis for digital business models and for applications that make people’s lives easier”.

The platform is intended to create the basis for new “cross-modal mobility apps”. In order to make travelling in Germany easier, companies will be able to access timetable data, real-time traffic information or locations of rental bikes.

In November, additional functionalities from two already existing mobility data platforms (MDM, mCLOUD) will be merged into Mobilithek. And in February 2023, the retrieval of metadata will be possible via an API. (see press release BMDV – DE)

Relevant Publications, including from the EP Think Tank:

Outcome of the meetings of EU leaders on 23-24 June 2022 (Briefing)
Priority dossiers under the Czech EU Council Presidency (Briefing)
Adopting the Digital Services Act (At a Glance)
Digital Markets Act: Adoption in plenary (At a Glance)
European Council: facts and figures (Briefing)
Better regulation in the EU: Improving quality and reducing delays (Briefing)
New technologies and new digital solutions for improved safety of products on the internal market (Study)

Outlook for the Current Week

You can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament here as well as an overview of the plenary sessions week. The meeting calendar for 2022 can be found here (PDF).

On Monday, debates on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act will take place. The related votes are scheduled for Tuesday.

An overview of the most important dates of the Council week can be found here and the meeting calendar can be accessed here.

Included among these dates are:

Summits and Ministerial Meetings:

None

Preparatory Bodies:

Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth, Monday, 4 July;
Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society (incl. AI, DDPP), Tuesday, 5 July and Friday, 8 July;
Working Party on Hybrid Threats, Tuesday, 5 July and Thursday, 7 July;
Working Party on Intellectual Property, Thursday, 7 July and Friday, 8 July;
Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth (Industry) (incl. Chips Act), Friday, 8 July;
Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, Wednesday, 6 July and Friday, 8 July;
Working Party on Consumer Protection and Information, Friday, 8 July;
COREPER I, Wednesday, 6 July;
COREPER II, Thursday, 7 July;

Information on the weekly Commission Meeting can be found in the preview (PDF) or (at short notice) in the current agenda.

The following topic is on the agenda for the coming week:

A new European innovation agenda

You can find the judicial calendar of the ECJ here. The oral hearing in the La Quadrature du Net case (C-470/21) on identity data matters will take place on Tuesday.

European Parliament Committees

CW 27 / Monday, 4 to Thursday, 7 July: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg);