Contrary to what it announced earlier this year, the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU will not aim for a political agreement in principle ('general approach') on the draft 'ePrivacy' regulation on the confidentiality of electronic communications at the ‘Telecommunications’ Council on Friday 7 June (see EUROPE 12165/3).
According to the draft agenda of the ministerial meeting, which will be discussed on 15 May by the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), the Romanian Presidency will submit a progress report to the ministers, thus passing the torch to the Finnish Presidency in the second half of the year. The deletion of the working party's work file on 6 May was a precursor to such a decision.
“Of course, it’s somehow a disappointment but we have to take into account the realities. There is no support coming from Member States”, Single Digital Market Commissioner Andrus Ansip told EUROPE, who nevertheless praised the “very serious” work done by the Romanian Presidency.
“The next Commission and the next European Parliament will have to continue this work, because I am sure that one day, Europe will get ePrivacy anyway”, he continued.
“The implementation of the ePrivacy directive was different in different Member states - and when it was implemented, we did not have GDPR yet [General Data Protection Regulation] - and now there is some contradictions between GDPR and implementation of the ePrivacy directive. So one day, they will have to fix those problems anyway”, Mr Ansip said.
The Commissioner also pointed out that with the new electronic communications code to be implemented by 2021 (see EUROPE 12137/9), platforms will have to apply the 'ePrivacy’ Directive, which is, in many respects much more restrictive than the 'ePrivacy’ Regulation.
“So in this meaning, we can say that this problem is fixed somehow”, he noted with optimism.
For more than 2 years, Member States have been discussing this proposal, which aims to strengthen the confidentiality of online exchanges – including via circumventing operators – while allowing access to personal data in the event of prior user consent (see EUROPE 11700/1). To the great despair of the MEPs, who adopted their position at the end of 2017 (see EUROPE 11892/6), and have been waiting ever since to enter into negotiations with the Member States.
“The ePrivacy Regulation is very complex and the Member States still require more time to analyse all the implications. The text has seen significant progress under the Romanian Presidency of the EU Council. Our focus has always been to contribute to a solid piece of legislation that complements GDPR”, the Romanian Presidency justified.
It seems that after submitting four different compromise proposals, the Romanian Presidency has decided to devote its resources to other less controversial issues.
The legislative proposal touches on sensitive issues, such as targeted advertising (via the practice ofcookie walls, which consists for a service to refuse access to a user who does not consent to the processing of his communications) or data retention. The link between Internet privacy and the fight against child pornography also emerged in the discussions (see EUROPE 12219/14). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean and Pascal Hansens)