The European Union’s interior ministers are moving closer to an agreement on the controversial draft regulation on the removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the Internet. On Thursday 19 October in Luxembourg, they signalled their intention to make progress as quickly as possible, but some of them still raised major concerns.
At the end of the day’s work, the Spanish Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gomez, said that “we are close to a breakthrough, but there is still work to be done”.
The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU presented new compromise proposals to the Member States last week (see EUROPE 13271/12), the main aim of which is to restrict the application of orders to detect this material in private communications to existing content, excluding, at this stage, new content and attempted solicitations for sexual services (grooming or paedophilia). And on Thursday, it wanted to sound out the ministers on the possibility of moving towards an agreement on the basis of these proposals.
The public discussion revealed a common desire to equip themselves as quickly as possible with this new tool, which is intended to replace the voluntary detection of child sexual abuse content authorised through a derogation included in the e-privacy directive, but which is due to expire in mid-2024, creating the risk of a legal vacuum.
Encouraged by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, who reminded them that “5 million videos” or paedophilia attempts had circulated in the EU last year, some countries said they were quite prepared to accept the latest Spanish proposals, even though countries such as Ireland would have liked “a more ambitious scope” in line with the Commission’s initial proposal, which also includes new content and “grooming” in these detection orders.
“We have to reach an agreement before the end of this mandate”, said Minister Helen McEntee, and develop new technologies to detect all this content.
For German minister Nancy Faeser, it is also “crucial to have legislation in this area; we must ensure that obligations are imposed quickly and avoid legal loopholes”, she commented, “but a few details on the methods” remain to be clarified, particularly on “encrypted communications, but I think we are on the verge of an agreement”, she added.
Her Dutch counterpart, Erik van der Burg, also expressed his country's reservations and emphasised the need to settle “major details”.
For The Hague, the text currently on the table is unsatisfactory in that it still leaves too much room for manoeuvre for the Commission to decide to further extend the scope of detection orders by following the Spanish suggestion of an activation clause. The Minister therefore called for a revision clause to be included in the text, to allow for an in-depth legal analysis of the regulation and its effects before opting for a further extension of the scope of application.
The Netherlands will only be able to accept a broader scope for new content and ‘grooming’ if the technologies are ready for it, and the country considers that they are not yet fully developed.
The Belgian and Italian ministers, for their part, said they were in favour of the options on the table, with the Belgian Minister for Home Affairs, Annelies Verlinden, describing the proposals as “balanced” and allowing both the application of the law and respect for privacy. Italy also supported the architecture proposed by Madrid.
“We can only hope for a rapid agreement”, said Italian minister Matteo Piantedosi. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)