On Monday 2 March, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) finally rejected the report aimed at extending by one year the temporary derogation from the ePrivacy Directive to detect child sexual abuse material online. Drafted by Birgit Sippel MEP (S&D, German), the text moderated the Commission’s proposal to extend this derogation for two years. Despite the adoption of several technical amendments, the final vote sealed rejection of the entire report.
The MEPs did, however, approve some important safeguards, such as the amendment restricting detection to known equipment and the amendment on end-to-end encryption, which prohibited any technology capable of breaking the confidentiality of exchanges.
This result was also unexpected, given the last exchanges that had taken place between the members of the committee on the subject, during which Ms Sippel’s proposal had received the support of several of her colleagues (see EUROPE 13814/19).
The parliamentary groups can now table new amendments concerning this measure, which should be on the agenda for the next plenary session, from 9 to 12 March. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)