A week before the publication of the ‘omnibus’ draft legislation simplifying the EU’s digital legislation, critical reactions to the leaked first draft (see EUROPE 134741/1) are accumulating, both from associations and civil society (see other news) and from the European Parliament.
After the Social Democrats, who issued a scathing open letter to the Commission (see EUROPE 13750/20) in which they described the institution’s plan as posing “potential risks”, it was the turn of the Greens/EFA group, Renew Europe and elected members of The Left to take a position.
In a letter dated Wednesday 12 November, five members of Renew Europe, including the Chair, Valérie Hayer (French), the Vice-Chair, Irena Joveva (Slovenian), and the group’s coordinator on the Internal Market Committee, Svenja Hahn (German), asked the Commission to “withdraw the points that are contrary to fundamental rights and the protection of privacy”.
The group is particularly alarmed by the changes made to the GDPR, especially the amendment to Article 9. “The proposal creates new blanket exemptions that would allow greater non-consensual tracking of individuals and undermine our fundamental right to privacy and confidentiality of our communications”, it says.
Liberal MEPs are also urging the Commission not to water down ambitions to monitor and control the most at-risk AI systems under the AI Regulation.
The Greens/EFA feel that the Commission “plans to go well beyond technical simplifications and is instead going back on the legislation that is the cornerstone of the Community acquis in digital policy”.
The group is concerned about adjustments to the AI Act that “reduce” obligations for at-risk systems, targeted changes to the GDPR that “weaken” personal data protection, and backtracking on key legislation that weakens European digital sovereignty.
Leïla Chaibi (The Left, French), for her part, plans to send a written question to the Commission, co-signed by around thirty Greens/EFA, The Left and S&D MEPs, to ask about the influence of US tech lobbies on the process of drawing up the ‘omnibus’ on digital legislation.
See the Renew Europe letter: https://aeur.eu/f/jga
See the Greens/EFA letter: https://aeur.eu/f/jgb (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)