The European Parliament and the Council of the EU showed determination to “reach an agreement as quickly as possible” on the regulation aimed at preventing and combating child sexual abuse material (CSAM), reported MEP Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, Spanish) to the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) on Tuesday 27 January, during a report on the trilogue held on 9 December (see EUROPE 13767/13).
The MEP pointed out that technical meetings had been held on 15 and 23 January under the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council, hailing “a good atmosphere” between the parties and “remarkable progress” on Chapter IV of the Regulation, devoted to the “EU Centre” which would group together alerts and manage data.
Mr Zarzalejos reiterated Parliament’s willingness to guarantee “a strong mandate for the EU Centre, which is essential not only to combat child abuse, but also to guarantee the EU’s autonomy in this area”.
Nearly four years after it was presented by the European Commission, the CSAM Regulation is still far from unanimous. The text aims to oblige online platforms to scan communications in order to detect and block any child sexual abuse material.
A major point of contention: these ‘detection orders’ are accused of contravening end-to-end encryption and the General Data Protection Regulation. This led to a temporary derogation from the ‘ePrivacy’ Directive, allowing voluntary scanning until August 2026.
Parliament maintains these detection orders, but only “as a last resort”. In order to be able to issue a mandate, the EU Council had to rule out any obligation to scan, preferring platforms to act voluntarily (see EUROPE 13760A11).
On a technical level, the interinstitutional negotiations focused on the ‘EU Centre’, according to a technical note Agence Europe was able to consult.
A consensus already exists, since most of the provisions are identical between the European Parliament and the EU Council and ready for validation. Other provisions have been the subject of a provisional technical agreement, notably on the simplification of the list of URLs to be reported and Europol’s access to the future European centre’s database.
However, differences remain over the name of the Centre (the name ‘EU Centre for the Protection of Children from Online CSAM’ proposed by Parliament having been deemed too broad by the EU Council), the composition of its Executive Board and the vote of European Parliament representatives on the Governing Board.
A number of key questions also remain unanswered, starting with whether the ‘EU Centre’ will be able to proactively search for child sexual abuse material on public sites without waiting for a prior warning.
Potential cooperation with child protection helplines and the creation of a European online victim support platform are also under discussion.
The extension of the derogation from the ‘ePrivacy’ Directive is also on the agenda for the meeting of Member States’ ambassadors to the EU, scheduled for Wednesday 28 January, according to the Cyprus Presidency. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)