On the morning of Monday 14 December, the Interior Ministers of the EU Member States took note of the agreement reached on 10 December on the timely removal of online terrorist content (see EUROPE 12620/11).
“This is the fulfilment of an important wish of the German Presidency”, said Stephan Mayer of the German Ministry of the Interior.
The “process has been a long and difficult negotiation, but we have been able to overcome all that”, Commissioner Ylva Johansson, was pleased to say. “We are sending a strong and clear message in the fight against terrorism”.
On the same day, the Council of the EU validated two sets of conclusions also related to internal security in the EU, one on encryption and the other on European Police Partnership.
On encryption, while recalling the valuable nature of this technology and the need to respect fundamental rights, the conclusions highlight the challenges posed to law enforcement when these encryption tools are used by individuals or groups pursuing criminal goals.
The text therefore insists on the cooperation to be found with web actors through new technical solutions. It also says that it is necessary to develop a European regulatory framework that would enable the competent authorities to carry out their investigations while safeguarding fundamental rights and the principle of security of communications. Here again, potential technical solutions must be sought which, at the same time, preserve the benefits of encryption.
The conclusions on internal security and the European Police Partnership, for their part, stress a series of objectives to be achieved by 2025, such as better linking the information already available, in particular by implementing interoperability of information systems or ensuring that law enforcement authorities can use artificial intelligence technologies in their daily work.
Links to the conclusions: https://bit.ly/2Wf7iDy and https://bit.ly/3gI8GrS (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)