There will be no EU Council decision on chat control today. The Belgian Council Presidency did not think it could achieve a majority and has taken the point off the agenda. This was confirmed to netzpolitik.org by the Council Presidency and member states. The delegates of the EU member states were supposed to agree on a common proposal this afternoon.
The point has instead been tabled until further notice. The responsible Committee of Permanent Representatives convenes every week, but Belgium will almost certainly not be able to get a majority next week. From July 1 onwards, Hungary will take over the Council Presidency from Belgium. Hungary has already stated in the programme of its presidency that it will continue the negotiations on chat control.
No majority
The member states have been trying for two years to find common ground on the proposal. Until now, they were blocked by a minority including Germany and France. However, France seems to have been increasingly on the edge in the last few weeks after the Belgian presidency changed some wording in the proposal. Germany stated that it would have voted against the proposal today.
Czechia had stated to netzpolitik.org that it would have abstained from the vote, while Ireland would have voted in favour. What the other member states thought of the proposal was unclear. Security experts, scientists, and messenger companies had repeatedly called for resistance against the current proposal.
Joy from opponents
Patrick Breyer celebrated the news of the delay. The German Pirate delegate worked on the Parliament proposal for the chat control file. „The surveillance extremists among the EU governments and Big Sister Ylva Johansson have for now failed in conjuring up a qualified majority. But they will not give up and could try again in the next few days“, he said. „When will they finally learn from the EU Parliament that effective, legally watertight protection of children, acceptable to a majority, looks different?“
He calls for a fundamental reworking of the Belgian proposal. According to him, the only way the law will pass through an eventual court challenge would be without a general chat control. „Client side scanning“ should be explicitely excluded. Finally, young people should not be excluded from apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
We have added a statement by Patrick Breyer to the article.
0 Ergänzungen