According to a document leaked by netzpolitik.org, the Belgian Council Presidency, led by conservative Home Affairs Minister Annelies Verlinden, proposes minor changes to the controversial EU Commission’s Chat Control 2.0 proposal (officially “child sexual abuse regulation”) in order to secure a majority among EU governments. The proposed “new approach” will be discussed on Friday in a Council working group and on Monday by the EU interior ministers.

Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament and most vocal opponent of chat control Patrick Breyer criticises:

“Now that the extension of voluntary chat control 1.0 has been agreed, EU Commissioner ‘Big Sister’ Johansson and her network are immediately go back to making general mass monitoring of our private messages mandatory and destroying secure encryption of our chats.

Verlinden’s claim that her proposal was ‘more targeted’ than the Commission’s is a brazen lie. Nothing is targeted about it, in the meaning of the European Court of Justice. In reality, the proposal again aims to impose on communications services the unreliable automated mass monitoring of private chats of citizens who are not even remotely connected to child sexual abuse. This destruction of the digital privacy of correspondence has unanimously and repeatedly been rejected by independent legal experts as likely illegal and subject to annulment in court. The proposed untargeted scanning of ‘parts’ of a service has also long been been officially rejected by the EU Council’s own legal service. Law enforcement paranoia about ‘threats’ and ‘risks’ does not justify deploying unreliable suspicion machines to search and expose the private and intimate communications of millions of law-abiding citizens.

Verlinden’s claim that her proposal would protect cyber security and encrypted data also constitutes disinformation. In reality, secure end-to-end encryption would be destroyed as a result of installing chat scanning technology on our private devices (so-called client-side scanning). Just a fortnight ago, the European Court of Human Rights banned such general weakening of secure end-to-end encryption because encryption protects us all from data theft and fraud. Secure encryption saves lives, the Belgian initiative jeopardises them.

With their minimal amendments, the intransigent Belgian hardliners are ignoring the alternative and much more effective measures proposed by the European Parliament to protect children: Security by design obligations for communications services, cleaning the open Internet, removal obligations – none of this is part of the Belgian initiative.

This latest attack on digital privacy of correspondence and secure encryption is doomed to fail both politically and legally. Likely Verlinden doesn’t even have her own government’s backing. By clinging to chat control mass surveillance, Verlinden will achieve nothing at all to better protect our children. Victims of abuse deserve politicians who are able to protect children effectively, in line with fundamental rights and in a court-proof way.”

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Following an initiative of the Pirate Party, the European Parliament will discuss the looming extradition and prosecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and its implications on freedom of the press on Wednesday. In a narrow vote on Monday, the majority of MEPs decided to request EU Commission and Council statements on the case followed by a political debate.

Patrick Breyer, MEP for the German Pirate Party, is delighted:

“We have put an end to the EU’s silence and looking the other way on Assange. Double standards just because the United States are an ally undermine Europe’s credibility when it comes to upholding human rights.

The US wants to make an example of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to make sure no one will dare to leak internal information that exposes war crimes, unlawful detention, human rights violations and torture by the world power ever again. To us Pirates, such transparency is both a mission and an obligation, because transparency is the only way to hold the powerful accountable for state crimes and stop abuses of power. That is why we are calling for the release of Julian Assange.

When I raised the Assange case during a trip to the USA by the Home Affairs Committee, government representatives told me that every journalist would be prosecuted according to the same standards. In other words, freedom of the press and investigative journalism, our right to truth and justice are at stake here.

The world is now looking at the UK and its respect for human rights and the Convention on Human Rights. Britain’s relationship with the EU is at stake if it fails to respect its obligations.”

Previously, a group of 46 MEPs from different political groups had already sent a final appeal to the British Home Secretary to protect Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and prevent his possible extradition to the United States. In a letter to the British Home Secretary last week, the signatories emphasised their concerns about the Assange case and the impact on press freedom as well as the serious risks to Assange’s health in the event of extradition to the US. According to the letter, the US government is attempting to use the Espionage Act of 1917 against a journalist and publisher for the first time. If the US succeeds and Assange is extradited, this would mean a redefinition of investigative journalism. It would extend the application of US criminal laws to the whole world and also to non-US citizens, without extending the application of the US constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

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Today, Members of the European Parliament adopted new rules on transparency and targeting of political advertising, which will essentially apply from 2025. In addition to a mandatory publicly accessible collection of political advertising (“ad library”), the EU Parliament, with the participation of Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer, was able to implement an unprecedented ban on annoying consent banners if the user rejects personalised political advertising via browser default settings (“do not track”). Parliament was also able to ensure that consent to political surveillance advertising must not be required as a precondition for using internet services (“tracking walls”). On the downside, contrary to Parliament’s intention, personally micro-targeting political messages based on every user’s the individual preferences, weaknesses, life situation and personality will continue (so-called surveillance advertising). Patrick Breyer, MEP and digital freedom fighter for the Pirate Party, who co-negotiated the regulation on behalf of the Committee on Home Affairs, sums up the result:

“This law is the beginning of the end of annoying cookie banners and outrageous forced consent walls. Every user will be able to decide in favour of or against political surveillance advertising – but the consequences of that decision are beyond the average consumer’s comprehension.
The digital manipulation of elections in the style of Cambridge Analytica, targeted disinformation before referendums such as Brexit, contradictory election promises to different voter groups – all of this remains legal. This non-regulation benefits anti-democratic and anti-European forces in particular: they can continue to use surveillance advertising to target hate messages and lies at those voters who are susceptible to them in order to undermine our democracy.

Here, the short-sighted self-interest of EU governments in election advertising and the surveillance capitalist profit interests of big tech have combined to create a mixture that is toxic to democracy. Transparency is not enough – it will only allow us to watch attacks on our democracy.”

The existing ban in the Digital Services Act on analysing users’ political opinions, sexual orientation or health for advertising purposes remains in place. In practice, however, micro-targeted political advertising tends to be based on matching interests and other correlations, which remains permissible. Cambridge Analytica also analysed users’ personalities rather than their political opinions prior to Trump’s election as US president.

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The European Parliament today voted by a large majority in favour of a reform of the ECJ Statute. In future, the European Court of Justice will proactively and systematically publish the pleadings and arguments submitted by the parties to proceedings on its website once the proceedings have been concluded. An exception applies if the author of a pleading objects, but in this case there is a right of access to information via the EU Commission upon request. The new transparency rule will apply to all legal questions referred to the ECJ by national courts (“preliminary rulings”), as most landmark cases result of such references. MEP Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party), who is himself a judge by profession, had proposed the new transparency rule and fought for its adoption during the negotiations.

“With the systematic publication of pleadings, the European Court of Justice will be more transparent than ever before. This also sets standards for the national judiciaries,” said Breyer. “It is a privilege that, as a Pirate Party MEP, I was able to introduce our core aim of a transparent state into the negotiations and successfully see it through thanks to the support of my colleagues. Pressure from civil society also contributed to this.

After landmark judgements with far-reaching consequences, the public has a right to know and discuss the positions of governments and institutions in the run-up to the decision. I am sure we will be surprised by some of the arguments put forward by them. In a democracy where freedom of press reigns, we need to be able to hold the powerful accountable for their behaviour in court. At a time when the EU and its Court of Justice are facing a crisis of confidence, transparency creates trust.

Of course, the new transparency rule with its restrictions and reservations does not yet fully meet our expectations. In particular, we will be keeping a close eye on whether transparency objectors will systematically abuse their right to object to publication. Nevertheless, the introduction of the principle of proactive transparency in the EU judiciary is a milestone and a paradigm shift.”

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