The Ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) adopted, on Wednesday 17 November, a political agreement in principle (‘general approach’) on the text of the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12828/2).
“There was an agreement by all delegations on the general approach of the DSA, but with a very narrow margin of manoeuvre for the Presidency to conduct negotiations with the Parliament in trilogue (inter-institutional negotiations)”, a diplomatic source told EUROPE.
This view was confirmed by several other sources close to the case, who described the case and the upcoming discussions as “very sensitive”.
As a reminder, the last version of the compromise text presented by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council focused in particular on the maximum time limit for the removal of problematic content by major online platforms (see EUROPE 12832/17).
The time limit for removal is set at 24 hours, but adjustments could be made depending on the circumstances or the type of content involved.
In addition, the issue of the competence of the digital service coordinators - responsible for the correct application of the DSA - and of access to data was also among the issues addressed by the EU Council Presidency. Some clarifications on penalties and other fines were also made.
The general approach to the DSA will be on the agenda of the Member States’ ministers at the next ‘Competitiveness’ EU Council on 25 November.
In the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12821/8), DSA rapporteur Christel Schaldemose(S&D, Denmark) recently confirmed her hopes of reaching a vote in the European Parliament Committee in December, before MEPs meet in plenary to vote on the text in January. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)