In a letter addressed to the European Commission on 10 June, the German government expressed its concerns regarding the new regulation on preventing online child sexual abuse (see EUROPE 12950/5) and posed no fewer than 61 questions, Netzpolitik reported on 17 June.
Although the Council of the EU and its Law Enforcement Working Party (Police) will begin examining the text on 22 June, Berlin is particularly worried about how the regulation will affect privacy and the confidentiality of communications.
The text requires messaging service providers to monitor for the appearance of child pornography using means left to their discretion, but digital rights groups are worried about widespread surveillance of private communications.
“All regulatory measures must be proportionate [and] should not go beyond what is necessary”, Berlin explains in its letter.
Furthermore, Berlin emphasises that the German coalition agreement considers “secrecy of communication, a high level of data protection, a high level of cybersecurity as well as universal end-to-end-encryption” to be essential and “opposes general monitoring measures and measures for the scanning of private communications”. It is important “that [the] regulation fighting against and preventing the dissemination of child sexual abuse material [be] in line with our constitutional standards of protection for private and confidential communication”.
EPP Group in charge of reporting to the European Parliament
On 21 June, the office of German Greens/EFA MEP Patrick Breyer, who will be the shadow rapporteur for his group, explained that the regulation is very sensitive and is receiving a high level of media coverage in Germany.
The EPP Group, for its part, inherited the regulation. Approached to be the rapporteur at one point, Jeroen Lenaers of the Netherlands is, however, too busy with his duties as chair of the Pegasus inquiry committee and will not be able to take on that role.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/284 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)