On Wednesday 24 May, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper II) endorsed the political agreement (‘general approach’) presented by the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU on the ‘anti-SLAPP’ directive (see EUROPE 13185/15). According to our information, almost all Member States supported it.
Only one delegation “flagged” that the deletion of Article 4 relating to the definition of the cross-border nature of a court case could lead to legal uncertainty. Suggested by the Czech Presidency, and then retained by Sweden, this option means that it will be up to the courts to determine whether a case can be considered cross-border, and thus fall within the scope of the directive (see EUROPE 13037/21).
Despite the Member State’s reluctance for the EU Council to formally adopt its position for negotiations with the European Parliament, the Swedish text only needs to be approved by a qualified majority. The general approach will be on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) on 8 and 9 June. In the European Parliament, MEPs’ position on the dossier could be put to a vote as early as the July plenary session (see EUROPE 13186/31, 13146/22). (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)