The View from Brussels #319

News, Publications and Consultations from the Past Week

News CW (07.10.2024 – 13.10.2024)

Cyber Resilience Act: The Council has adopted the Cyber Resilience Act. The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act sets out strict security requirements for all connected products to ensure they are secure throughout their lifecycle. It covers hardware and software products such as IoT devices and requires CE marking to confirm compliance with cybersecurity regulations. (European Council)

Design protection package: The Council of the European Union has adopted the design protection package, which adapts the protection of industrial designs to the digital era and technologies such as 3D printing. It simplifies the procedure for registering designs at EU level and introduces a clause to exclude spare parts from design protection. After publication in the Official Journal, the regulation will enter into force in 36 months. (European Council)

Data protection and artificial intelligence: European data protection authorities, led by the Irish Data Protection Commission, are currently putting the brakes on AI projects by large tech companies such as Meta, Google and X. The reason forthis is concerns about the use of personal data. This is due to concerns about the use of personal data for training AI models, which makes compliance with the GDPR more difficult. These regulatory measures are exacerbating tensions between the EU and Big Tech as companies experience delays in the rollout of their AI products. (Politico.eu)

EU Commissioners-designate: The EU Parliament is preparing intensive hearings of EU Commissioners-designate, focussing on their plans for cloud computing, telecoms and boosting competitiveness. Concrete measures for the first 100 days in office are particularly in demand, e.g. on strengthening technological sovereignty, cloud policy and promoting competition in the digital sector. Candidates such as Henna Virkunnen and Stéphane Séjourné will be at the centre of the hearings to present their strategies for the coming years. (Euractiv.com)

ePrivacy Directive: The EU Telecoms Council’s latest draft supports far-reaching ‘horizontal data protection regulation’ that could cover not only telecoms providers but also large tech companies such as Meta and Google. A possible revision of the ePrivacy Directive aims to improve the protection of electronic communications and extend it to modern technologies such as social networks. At the same time, consolidation in the telecoms sector is seen as critical to ensure competition and investment in digital infrastructure. (Euractiv.com)

Selected Publications from the EP Think Tanks

There are currently no publications relevant to the Internet industry.

Ongoing Relevant European Commission Consultations

EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme – Amendment to the list of state-of-the-art documents (until 18.10.2024)
EU Cybersecurity Act – Rules for notification of conformity assessment bodies (until 18.10.2024)

Selections of the CW 42/ 14.10.2024 – 20.10.2024

Council:

The current preview of the Council’s work for the upcoming days until 20.10.2024 can be found here.

Summit and Ministerial Meetings:

General Affairs Council, 15 October 2024
First EU-Gulf Cooperation Council summit, 16 October 2024
European Council, 17-18 October 2024

Preparatory Bodies:

Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, 14 October 2024
Working Party on Intellectual Property, 14 October 2024
Working Party on Intellectual Property (Copyright), 15 October 2024
Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society, 15 October 2024
WP on Hybrid Threats, 15 October 2024
WP on Hybrid Threats, 15 October 2024
COREPER I, 16 October 2024
Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, 16 October 2024
COREPER II, 18 October 2024
JHA INFORMATION EXCHANGE, 18 October 2024

An overview of the various Council dates can be found here.

Commission:

The agenda of the current Commission meeting was not available at our time of writing. You can potentially find it on the Commission’s website in the near future.