Hello!
We have a new class of MEPs and a Commission President confirmed for a
second term. We are now slowly rolling out the outreach and monitoring the
positioning of all the stakeholders and lawmakers. The parliament is in
recess until 1 September and the hearings of the potential Commissioners
won’t happen until well after that.
Dimi & Michele
=== European Commission’s Political Guidelines ===
As part of her successful bid to be re-elected as President of the European
Commission, Ursula von der Leyen published a document outlining her
political guidelines
<https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63f…>.
This can be considered as the next Commission’s high-level priorities.
—
It provides a very broad insight of the thinking, but gives little
indication of the precise direction the Commission will go. However, it
still indicates a willingness to tackle specific issues. In the digital
realm we can note of several cues:
-
Protect children online (without specifics)
-
New rules for streaming platforms (likely an overhaul of the Audiovisual
Media Services Directive, which last time almost covered Wikimedia Commons)
-
Tackling “addictive techniques” and "infinite scrolling" (maybe as a
“Digital Fairness Act”)
-
"fixing data protection" (unclear what form this will take)
—
For a more thorough analysis you may consult the briefing document
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UH8YcDozxVH6pKL7nMT0G3irK_tci14Y6qOpZRc…>
penned by our very own Michele Failla.
=== Parliamentary Committees ===
The European Parliament Committees have been established
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sedcms/documents/PRIORITY_INFO/1358/Composit…>
during July’s plenary session (see also the committees pages
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/home>). We deem five of them
the most relevant to our work. Here are some notes on their
responsibilities and composition.
—
IMCO: The Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee has a say on
most files that regulate the single market. It was the lead committee for
the Digital Services Act, for instance. Its membership has increased to 52
members (+7), which is a lot. It will continue to be chaired by Anna
Cavazzini (Greens DE). Other notable & known to us members are Alex Saliba
(S&D MT), Nikola Minchev (Renew BG), Christel Schaldemose (S&D DK), Arba
Kokalari (EPP SE) and Kim van Sparrentak (Greens NL). Here’s the full slate
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/imco/home/members>. In case
you know someone, drop us a line! :)
—
JURI: The Legal Affairs committee traditionally leads on copyright. Among
its members are well known names from the last copyright reform, such as
Alex Voss (EPP DE), Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew BG), who is also the new chair,
Michał Wawrykiewicz (EPP PL) and Javier Zaralejos (EPP ES). The latter has
also been leading the parliament’s work on child protection & abuse last
mandate (more on CSAM below). Again, the full roster
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/juri/home/members>.
—
LIBE: The Civil LIberties and Home Affairs committee is in charge of
anything that has to deal with data protection, human rights, as well as
policing (including electronic evidence and orders). Javier Zaralejos (see
above) is the chair. Its size has ballooned to 75 regular members
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/libe/home/members>, which
just seems too much. Nevertheless, please take a look in case you recognise
anyone.
—
ITRE: The Industry, Research and Energy committee, is leading on data
sharing and industrial data usage initiatives, as well as international
trade agreements. All that talk about re-industrialisation, energy
independence and strategic autonomy has resulted in it becoming the largest
committee this legislative term - a whopping 90 members (+12). I don’t know
how this will work, but here are faces
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/itre/home/members>.
—
CULT: The Culture and Education committee is powerful on copyright, open
access and funding schemes. Members
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/cult/home/members> include
Laurence Farreng (Renew FR), who dealt with audiovisual issues in the past
and first-timer Hristo Petrov (Renew BG), who is Bulgarian rapper. The
chair is Nela Riehl (Greens DE), who got it because a cordon sanitaire
excluded far-right groups from holding key positions.
=== Who wants what? ===
Liberals: Ahead of the vote on von der Leyen for President of the European
Commission, the Renew Europe group asked for “correct implementation” of
the Digital Services Act, as well as a “digital majority at 15”. What
either means is somewhat fuzzy, but the latter comes from the French
delegation within the group and child protectionwill be a hot topic for
several MEPs. Some vague language on that was also included in the
President’s political guidelines (see above).
—
Greens: The Greens/EFA group wish list includes a “Digital Fairness Act”,
which should contain “clear rules against the use of addictive designs” and
against “price personalization”. Also demands partially reflected in the
political guidelines. Another demand is an “EU framework to prevent media
concentration and monopoly”.
—
S&D: The Socialists and Democrats groups wants, amongst other things, more
media literacy, which should include literacy about AI. It also speaks of
balancing access to culture and protection of intellectual property. On
GDPR they criticise the lacking enforcement and remind that the EU still
hasn’t updated its e-Privacy rules yet (a file that contains the rules on
cookies and is stuck since years).
—
EPP: Axel Voss, the powerful German member of the centre right group and a
veteran of the Legal Affairs committee is dreaming of a GDPR reform.
Besides this, his position is that the EU should regulate less in the
coming years and focus more on implementing existing rules. That being
said, Mr. Voss does think that a AI Liability Directive is still needed. He
has been rapporteur on this file last legislative term, but it was put on
hold to wait for the AI Act to pass first.
—
ECR: The ECR group, the “further right” group as compared to the EPP, sees
the Digital Services Act as a success and wants the Commission to focus on
its implementation. It says it strongly opposes “proposals to de-anonymise
the internet and to require user identification through eID systems”. On
protecting children online it argues for parental control and against
government action.
=== New Online Ads Rules? ===
The European Commission is commissioning a study on “online advertising at
the crossroads of different regulatory frameworks”. It wants to know
whether more online advertising rules are needed, especially with regards
to the latest tensions around Meta’s “pay-or-consent” model, which was
attacked by numerous European regulators. The tender
<https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/oppor…>
is for 300.000 Euro.
=== AI Act Goes Live ===
The beast is alive
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202401689>. The
general provisions will enter into force on 2 February 2025, the provisions
covering high-risk systems and general-purpose AIs on 2 August 2025.
Everything else by 2 August 2026.
—
From our perspective it is worth noting that the regulation does not apply
to AI systems released under free and open-source licences, unless they are
monetised or put into service as high-risk AI systems. large language
models that aren’t deemed high-risk and are under an open source licence
won’t need an EU representative. There is also a carve-out for platforms
and services making accessible to the public tools, services, processes, or
components under a free and open-source licence.
=== CSAM ===
Regular readers of this report know that the regulation to prevent child
sexual abuse material
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2022%3A209%3AFIN>
online is a priority file for Wikimedia Europe to follow. The major bone of
contention remains the proposed scanning of personal communications. There
has been no real progress in the past month.
—
One development is that the European Ombudsman, a body that investigates
complaints against EU institutions, has established a case of
maladministration
<https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/news-document/en/189565>. The reason is
the European Commission’s refusal to disclose meetings with the Thorn
organisation, which is a major stakeholder in the CSAM debate. Politically
we don’t think this will move the needle, consider it rather as a slap on
the wrist for the Commission.
===END===
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Wikimedia Europe ivzw
Dear all,
I am thrilled to share news of the launch of the *first issue*
<https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-newsletter-nov-2023> of the
new WMF Global Advocacy newsletter. You can sign up to receive future
newsletters at *this link*
<https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-policy-newsletter>.
This project is inspired by our desire to share the Wikimedia Foundation's
unique policy perspectives on pressing tech regulation issues with public
audiences, including policymakers, Wikimedians, and free knowledge
advocates. Our goal is to help these interested groups better understand
how we think about the internet and digital rights, and how laws and
regulations can and should be shaped to not only protect public interest
and community-led online spaces, like Wikimedia projects, but also to help
them flourish.
The newsletter will be emailed quarterly. Please feel free to share
the subscription
link <https://mailchi.mp/wikimedia/global-advocacy-policy-newsletter> with
your networks.
Happy reading!
Ziski
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone
Hi all,
We have now settled on the dates for this year's Big Fat Brussels Meeting,
the regular European advocacy focused gathering for Wikimedians. It will
take place on the *29 and 30 September* (a Sunday and a Monday).
In order to assess how many people are interested, we have prepared a form
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfrzdN79d-bJva0p1SQZJXQjZzkY6kiE8X…>.
*If you would like to participate, please fill it out.* Also, due to the
resources available and to make the most of the workshops, there will be a
maximum of 25 participants this year.
Cheers,
Dimi
--
Dimitar Dimitrov
Policy Director
Wikimedia Europe
mobile: +32497720374
Rue Belliard 12 Belliardstraat, Brussels
https://wikimedia.brussels
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Wikimedia Europe ivzw