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-f63ffb2cf648_en?filename=Political%20Guidelines%202024-2029_EN.pdf. This can be considered as the next Commission’s high-level priorities.
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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:
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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)
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For a more thorough analysis you may consult the briefing document https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UH8YcDozxVH6pKL7nMT0G3irK_tci14Y6qOpZRcHXJU/edit?usp=sharing 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/Composition_des_commissions_(full%20members)_EN.pdf 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.
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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! :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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”.
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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).
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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.
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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/opportunities/tender-details/docs/3a072784-e771-4875-8bb1-08a34d367187-CN/TENDER_SPECIFICATIONS_EC-CNECT2024OP0046%20-%20Recent%20developments%20online%20advertising_V1.pdf 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.
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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.
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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===