The View from Brussels #255

Highlights from the Past Week

CW 21 / Monday, 22 to Thursday, 25 May: Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);

CSAM I – SPAIN AGAINST END-TO END ENCRYPTION: According to a leaked document, Spain has advocated banning encryption for hundreds of millions of people within the European Union. Spain will take over the EU Presidency from 1 July. The document, which contains the views of 20 member countries on regulating encryption, reveals strong support among EU Member States for proposals to scan private messages for illegal content. Despite the potential crackdown on encryption by some countries, a number of countries also appear to strongly support end-to-end encryption and the protections it provides.

Italy described the proposal for a new system as disproportionate. Estonia cautioned that if the EU mandates the scanning of end-to-end encryption, companies are likely to either redesign their systems so that they can decrypt data or shut down in the EU. Finland urged the EU Commission to provide more information about the technologies that can fight child sexual abuse without jeopardising online security. Representatives from Germany said the draft law needs to explicitly state that no technologies will be used to disrupt, circumvent or modify encryption. (see WIRED)

Meanwhile, in its statement, the German Bar Association has voiced strong criticism of the Commission’s surveillance plans, describing them as a “massive encroachment on civil liberties” which would amount to “an automated, mass analysis of communication (content) data of all users”. (see Netzpolitik – DE)

CSAM II – DISCUSSION OF AMENDMENTS IN IMCO COMMITTEE: Last week, a discussion of the amendments took place in the Internal Market Committee (IMCO). (video, from approx. 10h20)

Compared to previous IMCO discussions, the debate saw early signs of common ground and compromise, although it was recognised that more work was needed on scope, encryption, voluntary measures and the balance between fundamental rights.

Rapporteur Saliba (S&D, MT) referred to the various documents recently published by the Council Legal Service, the LIBE Committee and EDSA and EDPS, and appealed for prudence. He pointed out that one should “not only” rely on technologies.

Shadow rapporteur Walsmann (EPP, DE) called for voluntary measures and the inclusion of new content and grooming in the scope of detection orders. Shadow rapporteur Rinzema (Renew, NL) noted that she would like to see the scope extended to more providers, including gaming chats. She also endorsed voluntary measures and age verification mechanisms.

Shadow rapporteur Bielan (ECR, PO) commented that technologies to detect new content and grooming were not reliable enough and would overburden law enforcement. He also called for strengthening encryption.

The IMCO Committee vote is scheduled for 28 June.

CSAM III – DISCUSSION OF AMENDMENTS IN FEMM COMMITTEE: The amendments were also discussed in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) last week. (video, from approx. 9h38)

The main point of contention was the scope that the FEMM opinion is meant to cover – the Greens and Renew were seen to have tabled amendments that went far beyond the remit of the FEMM Committee. This was on the grounds that far-reaching and privacy-invasive disclosure orders would have a disproportionate impact on women and girls as well as on the LGBT community.

MEP Melchior also pointed out that the CSAM discussions were highly contentious, that it was important to hear all voices in this debate, and that MEPs from many political groups tabled amendments that contradicted the views of the rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs from their own political groups.

The FEMM rapporteur Fritzon (S&D, SWE) advocated the need to specifically address the FEMM opinion in order not to create a “parallel” path to the LIBE report and to ensure that FEMM demands are taken into account.

The FEMM vote is scheduled for 26 June.

SUSTAINABILITY – EP VOTE ON RED III DELAYED: Last week, MEPs of the European Parliament’s Industry Committee (ITRE) were due to vote on the confirmation of the provisional agreement on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) that arose from the trilogue negotiations.

However, as announced by the Chair of the ITRE Committee, C. Bușoi (EPP, ROME), the majority of the political groups in the committee decided to postpone the vote, given that there are problems on the Council side regarding the confirmation of the provisional agreement.

In this context, Bușoi stated that it was not yet clear as to whether the confirmation of the agreement in COREPER could be opposed by a blocking minority (at least four Member States, 45% of the total number of Member States or 35% of the total population of the EU).

The ITRE Chair also announced that the committee’s vote on the provisional agreement is likely to be postponed until June, depending on progress in the Council’s internal procedure for the formal adoption of the amending directive.

CYBERSECURITY I – DISCUSSION OF AMENDMENTS TO THE CRA: On 23 May, the associated Internal Market Committee (IMCO) met together to exchange views on the amendments to the draft opinion of rapporteur M. Løkkegaard (Renew, DEN) on this dossier.

At the beginning of the discussion, the rapporteur noted that most of the amendments have similarities and generally go in a direction which he believes will be helpful in reaching compromises.

He also indicated that the main changes in the amendments aim to support SMEs in the implementation of the proposed CRA, while reducing the overall burden without reducing security.

However, the rapporteur also pointed out that certain aspects need to be further discussed, such as how open sources will be treated within the scope, product lifecycle, and the timeframe for implementation of the proposed regulation.

CYBERSECURITY II – COMMISSION OPENS CALL FOR PROPOSALS WORTH 107 MILLION EURO: The Commission and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) opened a new call for proposals worth 71 million Euro in total under the Digital Europe Work Programme 2023-2024 for cybersecurity actions to strengthen operational cooperation and joint capacities with the Member States at EU level.

At the same time, the previous call was re-opened until 6 July 2023 to create additional opportunities for a remaining total budget of 36.5 million Euro. (see press release COM)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – VOTE IN PLENARY ON 14 JUNE: According to information from the office of the rapporteur A. Voss, the report on artificial intelligence is scheduled for final discussion on 13 June and for vote in the plenary of the European Parliament on 14 June.

Kai Voss, the head of A. Voss’ office, also published the final version of the report. (see Linkedin)

COPYRIGHT – CULT COMMITTEE STANDS FOR MORE FAIRNESS IN STREAMING: The legislators in the European Parliament’s Culture Committee (CULT) are preparing their own initiative report on cultural diversity and the conditions for creators in the market. Last week, an exchange on this topic took place in the committee. (video, from approx. 9h38)

The rapporteur for the text, Spanish Socialist MEP I. García del Blanco (S&D, ESP), calls for more fairness in the redistribution of revenues, more transparency in the functioning of algorithms and recommendation systems, and measures to improve the visibility and discoverability of European works.

The draft report is to be presented to the committee in June, with a vote scheduled for October.

The Chair of the Culture Committee, German EPP MEP S. Verheyen, underlined to her colleagues that copyright is not the responsibility of their committee, but of their justice colleagues, and that any amendment to the report relating to these provisions would be rejected. (see Politico Pro, paywall)

MEDIA I – COUNCIL WILL INCORPORATE PLATFORMS IN FUTURE MARKET REGULATION: The Swedish Presidency has circulated a new compromise proposal (PDF) on the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).

In the proposal, it advocates that the future media regulator should rely more on national experts and take into account “the situation regarding freedom and pluralism in the concerned media markets” when drawing up its opinions.

On the platforms side, the Presidency asserts that “it is key that audience measurement results are made available”, stressing the verifiability of the methods used. With regard to audiovisual media, which includes VOD services, the Council focuses on the possibility for the media regulator to issue opinions on national measures that may constitute obstacles to the internal market; as opposed to measures affecting media pluralism or editorial independence, i.e. what does not explicitly concern the audiovisual system.

This compromise is to be discussed at the meeting of the Audiovisual Working Group on 30 May.

MEDIA II – MEMBER STATES PUBLISH AVMSD REPORTS: As part of an obligation stemming from the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, Member States have to periodically submit a report to the Commission outlining their measures to promote and develop media literacy skills. The Commission has issued guidelines regarding the scope of such reports. The first set of these national reports for the period 2020-2022 has recently been published.

EIDAS – COMMISSION INVESTS IN FOUR EUDI PROJECTS: The European Commission is investing 46 million Euro from the Digital Europe programme in piloting and enhancing the EUDI wallet.

This investment is supporting four pan-European pilot projects that will develop and test the usage of the EUDI wallet for individuals and businesses around a diverse range of everyday use cases. These use cases cover both public and private services with national and cross-border interactions. (see COMM press release)

INFRASTRUCTURE – EU COMMISSION CALLS FOR TENDER FOR STUDY ON MOBILE SATELLITE SERVICES: The European Commission last week launched a call for tender for a study on Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in the 2 GHz band in the EU – implementation of the current regulatory framework and an overview of the satellite connectivity market.

The deadline is the afternoon of 5 July.

Relevant Publications, including from the EP Think Tank:

• The European Parliament: electoral procedures (EU Fact Sheets)
• China-Russia relations: A quantum leap? (Briefing)
• STOA Annual report 2022 (Study)
• Corporate sustainability due diligence (At a Glance)
• Net-zero industry act (Briefing)
• Revision of the Renewable Energy Directive: Fit for 55 package (Briefing)

A Selection of the EU Commission’s Consultations

• Extension of the date of applicability of the RED delegated act on cybersecurity, privacy and protection from fraud – Feedback on the delegated regulation: 24 May to 21 June 2023
• Digital Services Act – conducting independent audits – Feedback on the delegated regulation: 5 May to 2 June 2023
• Delegated Regulation on data access provided for in the Digital Services Act – Feedback period: 25 April 2023 to 31 May 2023 (extended)
• Cyber Solidarity Act – Feedback on the regulation: 20 April 2023 to 20 July 2023 (extended)
• Net Zero Industry Act – Feedback on the regulation: 20 March to 27 June 2023
• European Critical Raw Materials Act – Feedback on the regulation: 20 March 2023 to 30 June 2023

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 agenda for the coming plenary session week. The meeting calendar for 2023 is available 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.

The official calendar as well as the programme of the Swedish Presidency can be found on the associated website.

Included among the Council dates are:

Summits and Ministerial Meetings:

• General Affairs Council, Tuesday, 30 May – Agenda;
• Agriculture and Fisheries Council, Tuesday, 30 May – Agenda, A Items, A Items Addition, Background Brief;
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (incl. GIA, CRA, eIDAS, Data Act, ePrivacy, AI, DESI), Thursday, 1 June and Friday, 2 June – Agenda;

Preparatory Bodies:

• Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society (incl. eIDAS), Wednesday, 31 May (Agenda);
• Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth (Industry), Wednesday, 1 June;
• Working Party on Tax Questions (High Level) ( VAT in Digital Age), Wednesday, 1 June (Agenda);
• Working Party on Hybrid Threats, Wednesday, 1 June;
• Law Enforcement Working Party (Police) (incl. CSAM), Thursday, 2 June (Agenda);
• Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, Wednesday, 31 May and Thursday, 2 June;
• COREPER I, Wednesday, 31 May (Agenda);
• COREPER II ( CSAM), Tuesday, 30 May (Agenda) and Wednesday, 31 May (Agenda);

Information about the weekly Commission meeting can be found on the website of the Commission in the preview (PDF) or (at short notice) in the current agenda. The non-legislative proposal on the metaverse has been postponed to 11 July. Meanwhile, the directive on tackling child abuse, the draft of which had been scheduled for 6 September, has now once again been removed from the preview.

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

• Inter-institutional ethics body
• Cross-border protection of vulnerable adults

The judicial calendar of the ECJ can be found here.

 

European Parliament Committees

CW 22 / Tuesday, 30 May to Thursday, 1 June: Mini-Plenary Sessions Week (Brussels);

LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Wednesday, 28 June 2023, 9.00-12.30 and 14.30-18.00 (Brussels)
• Thursday, 29 June 2023, 9.00-12.30 (Brussels)

JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)

Current Meetings

• Tuesday, 30 May (Brussels)

Excerpt from the Draft Agenda

 

30 May 2023, 16.00 – 17.15

…

18. Implementation of the 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation in the digital single market

JURI/9/11286

2023/2019(INI)

 

Rapporteur for the opinion:
	Karen Melchior (Renew)
Responsible:
	IMCO*	Beata Mazurek (ECR)

• Exchange of views

…

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Monday, 26 and Tuesday, 27 June (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (15 May 2023)

ITRE Committee (Industry)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Monday, 12 June (Strasbourg)
• Wednesday, 28 June, 9.00-12.30 and 14.30-18.30 (Brussels)
• Thursday, 29 June, 9.00-12.30 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (PDF) (24 May 2023)

IMCO Committee (Internal Market)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Wednesday, 28 June, 9.00-12.30 and 14.30-18.30 (Brussels)
• Thursday, 29 June, 9.00-12.30 (Brussels)

Dossiers Timetable (May 2023)

CULT Committee (Culture)

Current Meetings

• None

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• 28/29 June (Brussels)

INGE2 Committee (Special Committee on Foreign Interference)

Current Meetings

• Tuesday, 30 May, 10.00-12.30 (with AFCO, Brussels)
• Thursday, 1 June, 8.30-9.00 (Brussels)

Further Meetings (Calendar)

• Open

Further Parliamentary Calendar Dates

• CW 23 / Monday, 5 to Thursday, 8 June: Political Group and Committee Meetings Week (Brussels);
• CW 24 / Monday, 12 to Thursday, 15 June: Plenary Sessions Week (Strasbourg);
• CW 25 / Monday, 5 to Thursday, 8 June: Mini-Plenary Sessions Week (Brussels);