Procedural Trick Before Summer Recess Pushes EU Parliament Towards Capitulation on “Chat Control”
On Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote on a request for urgent procedure aimed at reviving the previously rejected, indiscriminate mass surveillance of private communications (“Chat Control 1.0”). This move, pushed by the EPP group and EU Member States, is not only an unprecedented parliamentary ploy, but also threatens to torpedo negotiations on a modern, permanent child protection framework online. Cybersecurity researchers are sounding the alarm in an urgent letter. Even the responsible rapporteur warns of an “unfair maneuver”, while diplomats describe the procedure as “unprecedented”.
It is a process that is extraordinary even by the standards of often complex EU legislative procedures: On Tuesday (12:00 CET), the European Parliament is set to adopt a special urgent procedure to reinstate the transitional derogation—which expired in April—allowing tech companies to conduct voluntary, untargeted scans of private chats for potentially illegal content. In a first vote in March, the Parliament initially demanded that scans of private chats be restricted to criminal suspects and that automated, AI-driven screening of unknown photos and chat histories be excluded. After trilogue negotiations failed due to the EU governments’ unwillingness to make concessions, the Parliament completely rejected an extension of the interim regulation with a clear majority (311 to 228 votes) in a second vote.
The subsequent process is extraordinary in several respects:
- This week will see the third plenary vote of the European Parliament on the exact same matter.
- Shortly before the summer recess, the procedure was surprisingly reopened on the initiative of Parliament President Roberta Metsola (EPP) – a circumvention of the Parliament’s March vote that diplomats have described as “unprecedented“.
- In the current procedural stage (“second reading”), the Council’s position can only be amended or rejected by an absolute majority of Parliament’s component Members (361 votes). If this threshold is not reached, the law is automatically deemed adopted. Thus, the expired “Chat Control 1.0” regulation would be reinstated even without the consent of the European Parliament.
Deciding on the Procedure means Deciding on the Substance
If the urgency is approved on Tuesday, the decisive vote on the substance is scheduled to take place as early as Thursday – the final sitting day before the summer recess. Experience shows that significantly fewer MEPs are present on this day. However, since 361 votes are required for amendments or a rejection, the reinstatement of the expired “Chat Control 1.0” regulation would become virtually inevitable.
If, on the other hand, the urgency is rejected on Tuesday, the proposal will follow the standard route to the responsible Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). There, cross-party amendments and compromises could be drafted within a three-month period, which could then secure a viable absolute majority after the summer break.
The conservative EPP group justifies the requested urgent procedure by citing a “legal gap” following the expiration of the “Chat Control 1.0” regulation in April. However, the German government has so far confirmed no extraordinary decline in reports as a result of the expired regulation. Companies are continuing to conduct voluntary scans as announced. Furthermore, according to official EU figures, over 60 percent of suspicious activity reports stem from the scanning of public posts and cloud storage anyway – areas that are not legally affected by the regulation at all.
Critics point out that extending the status quo prevents the transition to the new system of the planned permanent regulation (proactive crawling of public content, mandatory scanning of suspects, securing apps against grooming).
Background: Deadlock on the Permanent Solution
Negotiations are concurrently underway for a permanent regulation to protect children from sexualized violence online (the “CSA Regulation” or “Chat Control 2.0”). In these negotiations, the EU Parliament has been advocating for a paradigm shift in online child protection:
- mandatory detection orders targeting suspects instead of indiscriminate mass scanning at the industry’s discretion,
- an EU child protection centre for the systematic removal of known abuse material from the public internet,
- safety requirements for messaging apps (“Security by Design”) to prevent cyber grooming.
The permanent regulation has not yet been adopted because EU Member States insist on continuing the voluntary, indiscriminate scanning of private communications.
Critics warn that a renewed extension of the interim regulation this week will reduce the political pressure to agree on a viable permanent solution and could lead to its failure. Thus, prolonging the status quo threatens to actually stall efforts for better child protection online.
“As long as EU governments, lobbied by US tech giants, can continually extend their convenient status quo of voluntary, untargeted mass scanning via procedural tricks, they have no reason to agree to the Parliament’s targeted, legally sound, and much more effective child protection concept,” explains Patrick Breyer, civil rights activist and former Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party. “How absurd this process has become is evident in Italy’s behavior in the Council: This week, the government in Rome issued an official statement sharply warning against the current mass surveillance by private providers and the threat to encryption – yet paradoxically voted in favor of the text anyway.”
Rapporteur Criticizes the Move
The Parliament’s responsible rapporteur, Birgit Sippel (S&D), also voiced her criticism:
“Tackling child sexual abuse material online while proportionately protecting privacy in communications requires a long-term legal framework. By means of an unfair maneuver, the Member States are now trying to push the Parliament to adopt their first-reading position on the interim regulation next week. In doing so, they are jeopardizing progress in the negotiations on the long-term regulation. As rapporteur, I will not support an extension on the Member States’ terms.”
Decision to be Made on Tuesday
Ahead of the crucial decision on Tuesday at 12:00 CET, civil rights organizations, privacy advocates, and IT security associations are appealing to MEPs of all political groups to reject this procedural capitulation and vote against the urgency of the SIPPEL report. The EU Parliament must not bypass its own expert committees, they argue.
At the same time, pressure from the scientific community is mounting: In an urgent appeal over the weekend, renowned cybersecurity researchers Prof. Carmela Troncoso (Max Planck Institute) and Prof. Bart Preneel (KU Leuven) reached out to MEPs. They warn against voting in favor of the urgent procedure. The currently available technologies still exhibit unacceptably high error rates. Furthermore, untargeted scanning raises significant proportionality concerns, especially when far more targeted tools have long been available. Citing two previous letters signed by over 800 cybersecurity researchers, the authors state that such a broad consensus regarding the risks of a proposal is rare.
Act now to save online privacy
Call the offices of Members of the European Parliament that fightchatcontrol.eu marks as “SUPPORTS”. Act before Tuesday, 12:00 to keep our chats private!
Lorenzo DM
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