News, Publications and Consultations from the Past Week
News CW 43 (21.10.2024 – 27.10.2024)
Platform regulation in Ireland: Ireland has introduced binding rules for large online platforms to better protect users, especially children, from harmful content. The platforms are required to block content such as self-harm videos, extremist views and problematic advertising, with heavy fines in case of non-compliance. The measures align Ireland more closely with EU regulations and mark the end of self-regulation for social media. (Politico.eu)​
Protecting EU values in digital policy: Michael McGrath, the EU Justice Commissioner-designate from Ireland, plans to strengthen data protection and fairness in digital policy and to adapt the GDPR to new digital challenges. He emphasises the importance of international data corridors and a “democracy shield” to prevent election interference. Additionally, he aims to expand the “Digital Fairness Act” to include rules against dark patterns and manipulative advertising. (Euractiv)​
AI archives bot in the EU Parliament: The European Parliament has introduced a new AI-based archive search tool from Anthropic that is designed to speed up document searches by 80 per cent. The “Claude 3.0” bot can handle up to ten times more search queries than previous methods, making it easier to access historical EU documents. This is part of a larger initiative to use AI technologies for more efficient administrative processes in the EU. (Politico.eu)​
Regulatory measures for AI and Big Tech: Henna Virkkunen, the designated Executive Vice President of the EU Commission, wants to enforce compliance with the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts and advocates for strict control of large tech companies. She supports European AI and cloud solutions and plans to promote European AI data centres to reduce dependency on US companies. Virkkunen emphasises the importance of sustainability in the tech sector and calls for minimum energy efficiency standards in data centres. (Euractiv)​
LinkedIn and GDPR violation: LinkedIn was fined 310 million Euro by the Irish Data Protection Authority, due to the fact that user data for targeted advertising was processed without sufficient consent. This decision once again highlights Ireland’s role as a key regulator for large tech companies in the EU and calls for adjustments to LinkedIn’s data protection practices. The company stated that it intends to comply with the requirements in the future. (Euractiv)​
Selected Publications from the EP Think Tanks
Ongoing Relevant European Commission Consultations
- Travel – digitalising travel documents to make travelling easier
- Artificial intelligence – implementing regulation establishing a scientific panel of independent experts (until 15.11.2024)
Selections of the CW 44 (28.10.2024 – 03.11.2024)
Council:
The current preview of the Council’s work for the upcoming days until 03.11.2024 can be found here.
Summit and Ministerial Meetings:
This week, there are no Council meetings of relevance to the Internet industry.
Preparatory Bodies:
- Working Party on Technical Harmonisation, 28 October 2024
- Working Party on Intellectual Property, 29 October 2024
- Working Party on Hybrid Threats, 29 October 2024
- COREPER I, 30 October 2024
- COREPER II, 30 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.
Parliament:
Plenary Sittings (Brussels)
There are no plenary sittings of the European Parliament taking place this week.
Here you can find a list of the upcoming dates of the European Parliament. The calendar of the plenary sittings for 2024 is available here (PDF).
Committees
LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties)
No meeting of the LIBE Committee is scheduled for this week.
JURI Committee (Legal Affairs)
No meeting of the JURI Committee is scheduled for this week.
No meeting of the ITRE Committee is scheduled for this week.
IMCO Committee (Internal Market)
No meeting of the IMCO Committee is scheduled for this week.
CULT Committee (Culture and Education)
No meeting of the CULT Committee is scheduled for this week.
Outlook:
An overview of the following session weeks can be found here. The provisional agenda for the upcoming plenary sittings can be found here.
European Court of Justice
You can find the judicial calendar of the ECJ here.
