Hello!

Things in Brussels are slowing down. The co-leiglsators are formally adopting the last reforms, while the Belgian Presidency is making one last attempt to get the regulation combatting CSA material over the finish line. Meanwhile the European Commission is offering a grant to build a repository of public domain and open licensed works. 

Dimi & Michele 

 

=== CSAM ===

The Child Sexual Abuse Material Regulation is solidly stuck and unlikely to make it to the finish line, as we have written before. Nonetheless the Belgian Presidency of the Council made yet another attempt to get things moving. The latest compromise proposal includes clearer safeguards to protect end-to-end encryption. It also tries to introduce a risk-based model, whereas services deemed to be high-risk would face more obligations. 

—

The fundamental issues of the proposal remain though and it looks unlikely that the European Parliament (which wants to protect end-to-end encryption) and the Council (where some countries would really like to poke a hole in end-to-end encryption) can find much common ground.

==== EMFA==== 

On 13 March 2024, the European Parliament voted on the final text of the European Media Freedom Act, a new piece of legislation that aims at promoting media freedom and pluralism within the EU. The Council has formally adopted the text on the 26 of March, which now only needs to be formally signed and published in the Official Journal - after twenty days it will enter into force.

=== Transparency & Targeting of Political Advertising=== 

On the 11th of March 2024, the Council of the EU adopted the agreed text of the Regulation. The new rules have been already published in the Official Journal and thus will enter into force on the 9th of April. Some rules will apply immediately - i.e. Article 3 containing definitions and Article 5 introducing restrictions on third-country sponsors, whilst others from October 2025.

=== Anti-SLAPPs Directive === 

The Council of the EU formally adopted the final text of the anti-SLAPPs directive. The text will now be signed by the Presidents of both the European Parliament and the Council and published in the Official Journal. Following twenty days from its publication, it will enter into force.

=== AI Act ===

The European Parliament formally adopted the Artificial Intelligence Act. 

=== French SREN Bill === 

On the 13th of March 2024, the Commission formally sent to the French Government its detailed opinion on the SREN bill, following its formal notification. 

The EC highlighted how the new rules need to be in line with the e-Commerce Directive, particularly the country of origin principle therein established and its Article 3(4) and (5) for possible deviations from this principle, and cannot be in contrast with or merely replicating DSA rules. Furthermore, the EC pointed out that measures concerning the protection of minors should be developed at EU level, as the DSA, among other things, aims at addressing the issue. 

French Authorities need now to take into account all these remarks before approving the text if they want to avoid the opening of an infringement procedure according to Article 258 TFEU. In this sense, the Commission Mixte Paritaire (composed of senators and deputies) resumed its work on the 26th of March and under the guidance of the new Secretary of State in charge of digital affairs, Ms Marina Ferrari, will try to address the EC’s concerns.

It is worth noting that, as the bill has not been passed yet, ARCOM has not been formally designated as Digital Service Coordinator - the DSA foresaw the formal designation by the 17th of February 2024. 

===EU Repository of Public Domain and Open Licensed Works===

The European Commission is accepting proposals for a pilot project to build a repository of public domain and open licensed works. There are 700.000 euro allocated to this. One of the ideas for this is to have a database of already identified free content, so online platforms can avoid their systems blocking or deleting it (as is required by the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive).

 

===END===

Wikimedia Europe ivzw
_______________________________________________
Publicpolicy mailing list -- publicpolicy@lists.wikimedia.org
To unsubscribe send an email to publicpolicy-leave@lists.wikimedia.org