Policy & Law
27.09.2022

The View from Brussels #223

Highlights from the Past Week

CW 38 / Monday, 19 to Friday, 23 September: Green Week (no meetings);

BLANKET DATA RETENTION – OPPOSED ONCE AGAIN BY THE ECJ: Last week, the European Court of Justice delivered its ruling on the SpaceNet AG & Deutsche Telekom AG case vs the Federal Republic of Germany. In this ruling, the Court declared the German regulations on blanket data retention to be largely incompatible with EU law. The general and indiscriminate retention is seen to violate the principle that the retention of traffic data must be the exception and not the rule.

Regarding the general and indiscriminate data retention, the Court considers it to be such a deep-seated encroachment on the fundamental rights of EU citizens, meaning that the obligation to preventively and indiscriminately retain the communication data of all citizens is not proportionate, even in the fight against serious crime. The ECJ thus takes into account the recommendations of the Advocate General of November 2021. According to the ECJ, data retention should in future only be permitted in the case of genuine and present or foreseeable threats to national security. (see press release ECJ – PDF, eco press release)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – NEW COUNCIL COMPROMISE: In the new compromise on the AI Act (PDF, 16 September), the Czech Presidency recommends that systems that play a marginal role in decision-making should not be considered to be high-risk systems (and should therefore not be subject to stricter requirements). Prague also stresses that not all automated AI systems are high risk and therefore deletes the reference to an instantaneous output without third-party intervention as a criterion for determining high-risk systems. Overall, in updating Annex III, the Commission is asked to consider the benefits of the use of AI for individuals, groups or society as a whole.

While the idea of a complete prohibiton on biometric identification systems is gaining ground in the Parliament, the Council continues to support and clarify the exceptions to this prohibition contained in the proposal. For example, the Czech Presidency clarifies in its compromise proposal that the authorisations that law enforcement authorities must obtain are required “only for the use of the system, not for the use with regard to each individual person”. These proposals were discussed in the Telecom Group on 22 September. (see Contexte, FR, paywall and Euractiv)

POLITICAL ONLINE ADVERTISING – 450 AMENDMENTS IN THE EP: Last week, the European Parliament published the close to 450 amendments to the draft report by S. Gozi (Renew) in the Internal Market Committee (IMCO, 140 bis 409 and from 410 bis 686).

In parallel, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) published the 200 amendments to the draft opinion by A. Niebler (EPP). The opinion is due to be adopted on 26 October.

The Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) has already published its amendments. The EPP is the only party in favour of targeted political advertising, but this would happen at expense of greater transparency.

The regulation aims to enforce transparency of political advertising and limit its targeting based on personal data.

CLOUD CERTIFICATION – GERMANY CALLS FOR POLITICAL DIALOGUE: Germany has called on the European Commission for a political discussion on the sovereignty requirements that the EU executive has been pushing to include in the European cybersecurity cloud certification scheme.

Last week’s letter (PDF) was signed by Andreas Könen, Daniela Brönstrup and Ben Brake, the director generals of the German ministries of the interior, economy and digital affairs. It is addressed to Roberto Viola, the director general for the Commission’s digital department (DG Connect). (see Euractiv, Contexte, FR, paywall)

CLOUD SERVICES – OFCOM LAUNCHES STUDY ON STATE OF CLOUD SERVICES: The UK’s telecommunications regulator (Ofcom) announced it will investigate competition and innovation in the UK cloud market and the position of the three “hyperscalers” (AWS, Microsoft, Google). The aim is to publish a final report within twelve months. Ofcom has also stated its intention to look at digital services such as WhatsApp, Facetime, Zoom, and smart speakers, “over the coming years” as online and traditional networks increasingly converge. (see Ofcom press release)

EUROPOL REGULATION – EDPS TAKES REGULATION TO EU COURT: The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), W. Wiewiórowski, requested the European Court of Justice to have two provisions of the Europol Regulation annulled, with these provisions having been adopted by the EU institutions this year: “The contested provisions of the amended Europol Regulation retroactively legalise processing operations that were found to be in violation of the 2016 Europol Regulation,” stated Wiewiórowski.

Europol had amassed 4 petabytes of data without a sufficient legal basis, which was allegedly used for Big Data analyses. On 3 January 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in charge of Europol had ordered the agency to immediately delete all data that, after six months, had not been clearly assigned to a case. (see EDPS – PDF, Europe Table, paywall)

DIGITAL SERVICES ACT – END IN SIGHT: The final version of the Digital Services Act will be adopted by Member States’ representatives in the Council (Coreper I) on Wednesday. The text will then have to be adopted by EU ministers in the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on 4 October. The final signature in the plenary of the European Parliament is expected on 19 October, before the regulation is finally published in the European Official Journal.

In the meantime, the Council published the final version of the DSA.

CYBER RESILIENCE ACT – RESPONSIBILITY IN THE EP: The Industry Committee has been assigned competence for the CRA in the European Parliament (see EP Legislative Observatory).

As was previously the case with CSAM, the deadline of the consultation period for the CRA is currently being pushed further back each day until the text is available in all official EU languages, and will end on 21 November at the earliest.

Relevant Publications, including from the EP Think Tank:

 

Outlook for the Current Week

You can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament here. The meeting calendar for 2022 can be found here (PDF).

An overview of the most important dates of the Council week can be found here and the meeting calendar can be accessed here. You can access the official calendar of the Czech Presidency here (PDF).

Included among these dates are:

Summits and Ministerial Meetings:

Preparatory Bodies:

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

The following topics are on the agenda for the coming week:

  • Adapting liability rules
    • Artificial intelligence liability directive
    • Revision of the product liability directive
  • Social pillar implementation
    • Recommendation on minimum income
    • Protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to asbestos at work

You can find the judicial calendar of the ECJ here.

 

European Parliament Committees

CW 39 / Monday, 26 to Thursday, 29 September: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);

 

LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)

Current Meetings

  • None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Monday, 10 October 2022, 15.00-18.30 (Brussels)
  • Tuesday, 25 October 2022, 14.30-18.30 (Brussels)

 

JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)

Current Meetings

  • None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Monday, 3 October 2022

Dossiers Timetable (19 September 2022)

 

ITRE Committee (Industry)

Current Meetings

  • Monday, 26 September 2022, 15.00-18.30 (Brussels)

Excerpt from the Draft Agenda

…

  1. Exchange of views with Mr Juhan Lepassaar, Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA)
  2. Amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency

ITRE/9/09118

***I 2022/0160(COD) COM(2022)0222 – C9-0184/2022

 

Rapporteur:
Markus Pieper (PPE) PR – PE735.806v01-00
Responsible:
ITRE*
Opinions:
ENVI* Nils Torvalds (Renew)
AGRI Elsi Katainen (Renew) PA – PE734.431v01-00
AM – PE735.625v01-00
  • Consideration of draft report
  • Deadline for tabling amendments:27 September 2022, 12.00

…

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Monday, 3 October 2022, 20.00-20.30 (Strasbourg)
  • Thursday, 13 October 2022, 9.00-12.30 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (20 September 2022)

 

IMCO Committee (Internal Market)

Current Meetings

  • None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Monday, 10 October 2022, 15.00-18.30 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (September 2022)

 

CULT Committee (Culture)

Current Meetings

  • None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Monday, 3 October 2022 (Strasbourg)

 

PEGA Committee (Pegasus Committee of Inquiry)

Current Meetings

  • None

Further Meetings

  • Thursday, 6 October, 9.00-12.00 (Brussels)
  • Thursday, 20 October, 9.00-12.00 (Brussels)

 

INGE2 Committee (Special Committee on Foreign Interference)

Current Meetings

  • Thursday, 29 September 2022, 9.00-12.30 (Brussels)

Excerpt from the Draft Agenda

…

  1. Hearing on “Russian disinformation and propaganda regarding Ukraine in the light of its war of aggression and its impact on democratic processes in the European Union”, with– Dmitry Muratov, The Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2021, Editor-in-chief, Novaya Gazeta– Olga Rudenko, Editor-in-chief, Kyiv Independent– Michael Sheldon, Researcher, Bellingcat– Ross Burley, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Centre for Information Resilience

…

Further Meetings (Calendar)

  • Open

 

Further Parliamentary Calendar Dates

  • CW 40 / Monday, 3 to Thursday, 6 October: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg);
  • CW 41 / Monday, 10 to Thursday, 13 October: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);
  • CW 42 / Monday, 17 to Thursday, 21 October: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg);

 

The View from Brussels 11 June 2018

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