Work in the European Parliament on Commission proposals to facilitate cross-border access to electronic evidence (see EUROPE 12439/9) has been “put on hold” due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to several parliamentary sources. The dossier, which has now been under negotiation for two years (see EUROPE 12003/18), is as a result once again behind schedule.
The vote on the report by Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany) was originally scheduled to take place on 26 March in the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE). But all parliamentary committee meetings have been cancelled, with the exception of a meeting of the LIBE Committee last week to deal with urgent matters (see EUROPE 12460/23). Four technical meetings and two meetings of the shadow rapporteurs of each political group, necessary for the preparation of the vote on this dossier, also had to be cancelled. As of Monday 6 April, our sources were unable to tell us when work could resume.
Nevertheless, things may soon change. According to our information, the coordinators of the political groups for the LIBE Committee have been asked to indicate what they consider as priority dossiers. Discussions would then take place with a view to prioritising the legislative dossiers in order of importance and deciding whether to continue negotiations between political groups on them, either by videoconference or by some sort of written procedure. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)