As the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has not succeeded in obtaining the support of the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on the confidentiality of communications, no legislative dossiers will finally be on the agenda of the Telecommunications Council of the EU on 3 December. This will be limited to conclusions on 5G and a discussion on the use of data.
ePrivacy: Helsinki hands over the reins
“The discussions at group level were difficult and showed that, on several aspects of the proposal, Member States do not have the same views or priorities”. This is how Finland's Presidency is summarising the progress of work on the draft regulation on the privacy of electronic communications (known as ePrivacy). On 22 November, Helsinki submitted a draft compromise to the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the hope of obtaining their political support. But this was not possible, given the opposition of “at least 14 Member States, such as France and Italy” (see EUROPE 12375/11).
In a progress report, the Presidency highlights the points examined and the difficulties encountered. In particular, it explains that the derogation from the principle of consent for the fight against child pornography has led several countries to also request a derogation for the purpose of “preventing other serious forms of crime, in particular terrorism”. It also underlines that several countries have expressed concerns about the cooperation between national data protection and regulatory authorities, as well as the role and participation of the European Data Protection Board [https://bit.ly/2OIGaKh ].
Contribution to the European Data Strategy
The Telecommunications Council of the EU will therefore focus on ethical data use, in view of the Commission's plans to present a strategy on this subject (see other news) (see EUROPE 12352/7).
In addition to a working lunch on artificial intelligence and automation, the Finnish Presidency intends to hold a policy debate on “the European Union as a hub for ethical data use”. Ministers will be asked to decide on actions to boost the European data economy, measures to encourage business-to-business data sharing in Europe over the next five years, and safeguards to be introduced for intelligent and autonomous algorithms and systems.
In a background paper to frame the discussion, Helsinki notes that “it may be necessary to give a regulatory boost to data sharing between businesses in sectors that can contribute to the provision of more sustainable products and services, such as the automotive and mobility sectors, health, energy and agriculture. It may be necessary to complement this process with appropriate governance models to ensure trust between the parties involved”. At the same time, it highlighted the alternatives to regulation that include the use of open standards, the establishment of structured data sets, the creation of model contracts for data sharing or the introduction of a right to data portability [https://bit.ly/34CKAb7 ].
5G network security
Finally, the telecommunications ministers will adopt conclusions on the significance of 5G to the European economy and the need to mitigate security risks linked to 5G (see EUROPE 12373/9). These conclusions are in addition to the coordinated risk assessment at European level, which was published in October and highlights the risk posed by non-Member States. They pave the way for the “toolbox” currently being developed by the NIS, which aims to define effective common methods and tools to mitigate the risks associated with 5G networks. See the draft conclusions: http://bit.ly/37n56yi (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)