Next event: Vote in plenary scheduled 2021/07/06 more...
- Debate in plenary scheduled 2021/07/05
- Coreper letter confirming interinstitutional agreement 2021/05/28
- Approval in committee of the text agreed at 1st reading interinstitutional negotiations 2021/05/26
- Committee decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations confirmed by plenary (Rule 71) 2020/12/16
- Committee decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations announced in plenary (Rule 71) 2020/12/14
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading 2020/12/11
- Vote in committee, 1st reading 2020/12/07
- Committee decision to open interinstitutional negotiations with report adopted in committee 2020/12/07
- Committee opinion 2020/12/02
- Amendments tabled in committee 2020/11/27
- Committee draft report 2020/11/13
- Contribution 2020/11/13
Progress: Awaiting Parliament's position in 1st reading
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | LIBE | SIPPEL Birgit ( S&D) | ZARZALEJOS Javier ( EPP), IN 'T VELD Sophia ( Renew), BREYER Patrick ( Verts/ALE), TARDINO Annalisa ( ID), WIŚNIEWSKA Jadwiga ( ECR), ERNST Cornelia ( GUE/NGL) |
Committee Opinion | FEMM | ANDERSON Christine ( ID) | Hilde VAUTMANS ( RE), Jadwiga WIŚNIEWSKA ( ECR), Silvia MODIG ( GUE/NGL), Kira Marie PETER-HANSEN ( Verts/ALE), Robert BIEDROŃ ( S&D), Lena DÜPONT ( PPE) |
Committee Opinion | CULT | ||
Committee Opinion | IMCO | ||
Committee Opinion | ITRE |
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
TFEU 016-p2, TFEU 114-p1
Legal Basis:
TFEU 016-p2, TFEU 114-p1Subjects
Events
The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Birgit SIPPEL (S&D, DE) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
on a temporary derogation from certain provisions of Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards as the use of technologies by number-independent interpersonal communications service providers for the processing of personal and other data for the purpose of combatting child sexual abuse online.
As a reminder, the proposal aims to introduce limited and temporary changes to the rules governing the privacy of electronic communications so that over the top (“OTT”) communication interpersonal services, such as web messaging, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), chat and web-based email services, can continue to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse online on a voluntary basis.
The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal.
Scope
Members considered that the proposed Regulation should only apply to videos or images exchanged over messaging or email services. It should not apply to the scanning of text or audio communication, which remains fully subject to the provisions of the e Privacy Directive.
In view of its temporary nature, the material scope of the proposed Regulation should be limited to the established definition of so called ‘child pornography’ as defined in Directive 2011/93/EU and ‘pornographic performance’ as defined in the same directive.
Additional safeguards
The committee stated that voluntary measures by providers offering number-independent interpersonal communications services in the EU applied for the sole purpose of detecting and reporting child sexual abuse online and detecting, removing and reporting child sexual abuse material should be subject to certain conditions:
- a mandatory prior data protection impact assessment pursuant and a mandatory consultation procedure, prior to the use of the technology;
- human overview and intervention is ensured for any processing of personal data, and no positive result is sent to law enforcement authorities or organisations acting in the public interest without prior human review;
- appropriate procedures and redress mechanisms are in place:
- no interference with any communication protected by professional secrecy;
- effective remedies provided by the Member States at national level.
All these conditions need to be met to ensure the proportionality of the restriction to the fundamental rights that this activity implies.
Data retention
When no online child sexual abuse has been detected, all data should be deleted immediately, according to Members. Only in confirmed cases can the strictly relevant data be stored for use by law enforcement for a maximum of three months.
Public register
The Commission should establish a public register of organisations acting in the public interest against child sexual abuse with which providers of number-independent interpersonal communications services can share personal data under this Regulation.
Time limitation of the proposed Regulation
Members proposed reducing the application period from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2022.
PURPOSE: to enable the continuation of certain activities to combat sexual abuse of children online by creating a temporary derogation from certain provisions of Directive 2002/58/EC (Directive on privacy and electronic communications).
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council lays down rules ensuring the right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to the processing of personal data in exchanges of data in the electronic communication sector.
Protecting children online is one of the EU's priorities. On 24 July 2020, the Commission adopted an EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse which aims to provide an effective response, at Union level, to the crime of child sexual abuse. It announced that it shall propose the necessary legislation to tackle child sexual abuse online effectively by the second quarter of 2021.
Certain providers of number-independent interpersonal communications services are already using specific technologies to detect child sexual abuse on their services and report it to law enforcement authorities and to organisations acting in the public interest against child sexual abuse, and/or to remove child sexual abuse material.
These organisations refer to national hotlines for reporting child sexual abuse material, as well as organisations whose purpose is to reduce child sexual exploitation.
The ePrivacy Directive does not contain an explicit legal basis for voluntary processing of content or traffic data for the purpose of detecting sexual abuse of children online. However, it does provide that Member States may adopt legislative measures to limit the scope of the rights and obligations provided for in this Directive, which concern the confidentiality of communications and traffic data, for the purpose of the prevention and detection of offences related to sexual abuse of children.
Lack of Union action on this issue would risk creating fragmentation shall Member States adopt diverging national legislation. Pending the adoption of the announced long-term legislation, the Commission considers that it is essential to take immediate action to enable the continuation of some current activities to combat sexual abuse of children online.
CONTENT: the proposal aims to introduce a temporary and strictly limited derogation from the applicability of certain obligations of the ePrivacy Directive to enable providers of number-independent interpersonal communications services to continue using specific technologies and continue their current activities to the extent necessary to detect and report child sexual abuse online and remove child sexual abuse material on their services from December 2020, pending the adoption of the announced long-term legislation.
The proposal therefore contains safeguards to ensure that technologies benefitting from the derogation meet the standards of the best practices currently applied, and thereby limits the intrusiveness to the confidentiality of communications and the risk of circumvention.
The personal and other data used when carrying out the activities covered by the derogation set out in this Regulation, as well as the period during which the data is subsequently retained in case of positive results, shall be minimised so as to ensure that the derogation remains limited to what is strictly necessary. The providers shall publish reports on an annual basis on the processing falling within the scope of this Regulation.
The proposed Regulation shall apply from 21 December 2020 and shall cease to apply in December 2025. If the long-term legislation announced by the Commission is adopted and enters into force before that date, it shall repeal this Regulation.
Documents
- Coreper letter confirming interinstitutional agreement: GEDA/A/(2021)000000
- Approval in committee of the text agreed at 1st reading interinstitutional negotiations: GEDA/A/(2021)000000
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading: A9-0258/2020
- Committee opinion: PE659.041
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE661.791
- Committee draft report: PE660.288
- Contribution: COM(2020)0568
- Document attached to the procedure: OJ C 102 24.03.2021, p. 0004
- Document attached to the procedure: N9-0017/2021
- Legislative proposal: COM(2020)0568
- Legislative proposal: EUR-Lex
- Legislative proposal: COM(2020)0568 EUR-Lex
- Document attached to the procedure: OJ C 102 24.03.2021, p. 0004 N9-0017/2021
- Committee draft report: PE660.288
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE661.791
- Committee opinion: PE659.041
- Coreper letter confirming interinstitutional agreement: GEDA/A/(2021)000000
- Contribution: COM(2020)0568
Activities
- Caterina CHINNICI
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Cornelia ERNST
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Balázs HIDVÉGHI
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Sophia IN 'T VELD
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- Othmar KARAS
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- Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Birgit SIPPEL
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Hilde VAUTMANS
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- Jadwiga WIŚNIEWSKA
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Christine ANDERSON
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- Assita KANKO
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- Stelios KYMPOUROPOULOS
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- Javier ZARZALEJOS
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Nathalie COLIN-OESTERLÉ
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Loucas FOURLAS
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Patrick BREYER
Plenary Speeches (0)
- Jean-Lin LACAPELLE
Plenary Speeches (0)
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