Political publicity, Spanish Presidency of EU Council obtains revised negotiating mandate with a view to potential agreement with European Parliament

On Wednesday 4 October, the Member States approved the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council’s revised negotiating mandate for the next round of inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on political advertising legislation, which will take place on 10 October. This trilogue, the fifth, could be the last.

The text accepted by the Member States proposes to take up the Commission’s suggestion to put an end to the differences between the co-legislators on the definition of ‘political advertising’, which would henceforth include political advertising provided as a service, but also that prepared as part of internal activities.

The Presidency of the EU Council is also proposing to include coordinated actions to “capture”, as part of a targeted political advertising campaign, political advertising distributed free of charge via individual users or groups of individual users (‘trolls’ or ‘troll farms’) or which use fake accounts to manipulate votes.

The European Parliament had expressed its concerns about the ban on third-country sponsors, as had certain Member States. The approved negotiating mandate proposes guarantees for stricter national rules to reassure the latter and suggests a targeted ban on third countries to meet the European Parliament’s concerns.

The issue of personal data will also be addressed at the next trilogue. The EU Council proposes to accept the Commission’s suggestion to prohibit online political advertising based on profiling using specific categories of personal data, in line with the provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13262/9). The processing of personal data may be authorised with the consent of the data subject.

The EU Council negotiators will arrive with a clear position on the gradual implementation of the text. On this point, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council “does not see any flexibility possible in this respect and proposes to maintain the text of the general approach, i.e. 12 months after publication in the Official Journal”. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)