A year ago today, we in the EU Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) adopted a cross-party position against chat control without cause. In doing so, we have rejected the crazy surveillance plans presented by the von der Leyen EU Commission.
In addition to the European Parliament, the EU governments in the Council must decide on a position on the draft law. The necessary majority has already been missed three times. Both the Spanish Presidency in October 2023 and the Belgian Presidency in June 2024 briefly removed the vote on chat control from the agenda of the Council of the EU when it became apparent that the vote would fail – a huge success for civil society.
The European Commission is currently being re-formed. So far, EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson (S&D, Sweden), as the mother of chat control, has done everything she can to push her plan through. Now Magnus Brunner (EPP, Austria) is to succeed her in office and continue the project. In his hearing before the European Parliament he answered the question of the pirate Markéta Gregorová already signaled that he wants to complete the negotiations on chat control. A commitment to protection against comprehensive chat control or protection of secure encryption did not come to his lips. This is a mistake: the EU Commission must finally say goodbye to mass surveillance. Chat control without a reason must be removed from the table!
In the European Parliament, as your MP from the Pirate Party of Germany, I took a leading role in the negotiations to prevent chat control and also convinced the MPs from the other factions of this in countless consultations. Today, Markéta Gregorová carries the torch of digital freedom fighters for the European pirates in the European Parliament and is campaigning against chat control there.
In the Council of the EU, we have so far only been able to prevent totalitarian, comprehensive chat controls thanks to the tireless commitment and loud protests of civil society. This was possible thanks to every activist and individual who repeatedly contacted politicians and the government by telephone, email or letter. Thank you for your commitment! We must remain strong and continue to fight against the extreme and globally unique threat to digital letter secrecy and secure encryption through chat control at every further attempt!
Chat control topic page: chatkontrolle.de
