In the run-up to the fourth interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on the Regulation on combating the sexual abuse of children (CSAM), scheduled for 11 May, the MEP and rapporteur on this dossier, Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, Spanish), gave an update on the current discussions to the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) on Wednesday 6 May.
Mr Zarzalejos began by welcoming a consensus between Parliament and the Council of the EU on structural pillars, in particular the functioning of the future ‘EU Centre for the Protection of Children against Sexual Abuse’ and its cooperation with the Europol agency. He pointed out that common ground is currently being found to bring the text into line with the Digital Services Act (DSA) while “preserving the specificities of the CSAM system” (see EUROPE 13841/7).
The urgency of concluding the negotiations is all the greater given that the expiry of the derogation from the ePrivacy Directive at the beginning of April has created a major legal vacuum with regard to the detection of criminal material online (see EUROPE 13837/2). “The co-legislators feel the political responsibility to swiftly establish a permanent cell of legal rules to protect children”, said the rapporteur.
However, the highly sensitive subject of detection orders continues to divide opinion (see EUROPE 13850/1). Although this mechanism was removed from the mandate of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council, the Parliament maintains it as “a truly exceptional last resort instrument”.
This restrictive approach is designed to address fears of generalised surveillance. MEP António Tânger Corrêa (PfE, Portuguese) warned against the creation of “permanent mechanisms for monitoring private communications”, pointing out that 50 million content moderation decisions issued by online platforms have been deemed “abusive” and overturned using the DSA over the last two years (see EUROPE 13810/8).
In response, Mr Zarzalejos was reassuring: “Nothing in the Parliament position would amount to general monitoring of the communications, which is illegal under our European law”, he clarified, pointing out that the priority remains prevention through risk assessment and mitigation.
Despite positions continuing to be “far apart” on detection, the rapporteur describes an atmosphere of positive “cooperation” between the rapporteurs and the technical teams, currently mandated to explore compromise solutions. This may be enough to seal a final agreement before July - the stated objective of the Cyprus Presidency. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)