La tenacia con cui insistono per approvare questa misura orwelliana, è
davvero molto, molto interessante... chissà che cosa hanno letto i
politici, in qualche rapporto confidenziale, per spingerli a comportarsi
così.... di certo il contrasto al "child abuse" è solo uno schermo....
JC
*
President vs Parliament: Metsola overrides MEPs in bid to force through
child abuse law
*/
The European Parliament president’s power play is “without precedent,”
diplomats wrote in a note seen by POLITICO.
/
June 24, 2026 6:00 am CET
By Sam Clark <https://www.politico.eu/author/sam-clark/>
BRUSSELS — European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is trying to
push through a controversial law on scanning child abuse content online
even though it has been repeatedly slapped down by her own chamber,
according to a document seen by POLITICO.
In a step that diplomats deem “without precedent,” the top EU politician
has asked member countries in the Council to approve a bill that her own
Parliament shot down in a plenary vote in March.
At stake is whether the EU allows tech platforms to voluntarily scan
their services for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The issue has
been mired in controversy, with police
<https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/combatting-child-sexual-exploitation-statement-catherine-de-bolle>
and child rights advocates
<https://www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/statements/eu-failure-on-temporary-derogation-puts-children-at-risk/>
and European commissioners arguing that a lack of legislation allows
predators and pedophiles to operate with impunity online. Privacy
campaigners
<https://www.politico.eu/article/one-man-spam-campaign-ravages-eu-chat-control-bill-fight-chat-control/>,
meanwhile, have argued the proposals could lead to unacceptable mass
surveillance and the end of encryption
<https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-online-child-sexual-abuse-material-csam-privacy/>.
Ambassadors on Friday will consider an “invitation of the President of
the European Parliament [to] proceed with the Council’s first reading
position” on the proposal to allow tech companies to choose to scan for
CSAM, said a note by the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the EU
dated June 22.
In the note, Cyprus asked capitals to “carefully consider” the
invitation, “even if this would be without precedent in the present
circumstances."
Talks between the Parliament and the Council collapsed in March, just
days before the temporary legislation was due to expire. Lawmakers in
the Parliament later resisted last-ditch pressure from German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz, four European commissioners, tech giants Meta, Google
and Microsoft and numerous children’s charities, eventually voting down
an attempt to pass the bill in March by a margin of 311 to 228 with 92
abstentions.
A spokesperson for Metsola said the issue was "raised and asked for" at
a meeting of heads of the Parliament's political groups.
An EU parliament official said the European People's Party, the group to
which Metsola belongs, raised it and no groups objected. The official
was granted anonymity to disclose confidential details of the meeting.
Lawmakers working on the legislation now feel Metsola has gone over
their heads to invite the Council to adopt a position that the
Parliament had already rejected, according to two Parliamentary aides.
Markéta Gregorová, a Czech lawmaker with the Greens group in the
Parliament and shadow lead lawmaker on the law, described herself as
“extremely surprised” by the move and said Metsola’s invitation is
“unacceptable and undermines the European Parliament position.”
Hilde Vautmans, a Belgian lawmaker with the liberal Renew group and
shadow lead lawmaker on the file, said reopening debate on the temporary
law is a “political dead end.” “Parliament has rejected it twice, and
that will not change,” she said.
Spokesperson for the liberal Renew group Nick Petre said it was
"concerned" the move to reopen negotiations could weaken Parliament's
position to negotiate rules on child sexual abuse material. "After
trilogue negotiations on the interim file failed, it is difficult to see
how reviving that process now would bring us closer to a lasting
solution. On the contrary, it could delay progress on the comprehensive
legislation that victims, law enforcement and online platforms all
need," he said.
The invitation to ambassadors to proceed has not been previously reported.
Close the legal gap
The European Commission proposed the temporary CSAM bill as a stopgap
measure to allow companies to scan while legislators agreed on a more
permanent solution.
As talks stalled on the latter, legislators were working to extend the
former — at least until the dispute over the stopgap measure came to a
head earlier this year. The Council and the Parliament couldn’t agree on
terms to extend it, so the law lapsed in early April and companies were
left without a legal basis for voluntary scanning.
Tech firms continued to scan, despite the legal limbo.
Metsola called publicly
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/resources/library/media/20260618RES45739/20260618RES45739.pdf>
to look at “how to find an agreement on a second reading of this file,”
in an address to EU leaders last week.
Cyprus in Monday’s note said there was a “pressing need” to close that
legal gap. It said it “takes note of the political signal from the
President of the European Parliament to encourage continuing the work on
the proposal.”
If capitals choose to adopt their position, the law does not
automatically pass: The Parliament would need to either accept it or
re-enter negotiations. “There is no certainty that [the Parliament]
would adopt the legislative act in second reading in line with the
Council’s first reading position,” Cyprus wrote in the note.
Gregorová rejected the suggestion that lawmakers would budge. “The
Parliament mandate is clear: A majority voted it down, meaning that we
reject the extension.”
According to EU procedures, if capitals and the Parliament continue to
disagree, they could move to a rare procedure known as conciliation
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/olp/en/conciliation/overview>.
Lawmakers will meet next Monday for a political negotiation on the
other, permanent bill to tackle CSAM, though a deal at that meeting is
unlikely, two Parliament officials and one national official involved in
the process said last week.
/Max Griera contributed reporting./
/This article was updated to include a comment from a spokesperson for
Metsola and a Renew spokesperson and additional detail./
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