August 9, 2026

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August 9, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

LATEST
Korean Weapons and EU Loans Now Bankroll Europe’s RearmamentNew EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final SignatureKorean Weapons and EU Loans Now Bankroll Europe’s RearmamentNew EU Gas Market Rules Take Effect With Consumer SafeguardsDeforestation Regulation Holds Its December Deadline Despite CutsDigital Omnibus Delays Europe’s High-Risk AI Deadline to 2027Europe’s Schools Confront a Widening Basic Skills GapRule of Law Report Finds Progress but Trust Still LagsIRIS2 Gains 66 Satellites as Brussels Signs the Rollout DealNature Restoration Plans Come Due as Member States Race a DeadlineECB Rates Hold at 2.25 Percent as Frankfurt Waits on the DataEU Budget Talks Turn to Cohesion as Ireland Takes OverWildfire Response Stretches Europe’s Emergency Fleet ThinCan Europe’s Quantum Plan Match Its Big Ambitions?Armenia Edges West as Moscow’s Grip Slips AwayEurope Inherits the World’s Aid Bill It Cannot Fully PayAir Passenger Rights Get Their First Overhaul in Two DecadesErasmus Opens a 5 Billion Euro Round for Skills and MobilityCeuta Crisis Pushes the EU Toward Faster Migrant ReturnsBulky Parcels Face a Packaging Crackdown From August 12Can Europe Build Its Drone Wall Before 2030 Arrives?Indonesia’s Trade Deal With Europe Nears Its Final Signature

Member States Push to Extend Online Message Scanning

Milan Kundera
Principal Researcher, Digital and Technology

Brussels: EU member states moved on 26 June 2026 to revive a temporary legal regime that lets messaging platforms scan for child sexual abuse material, days before negotiators meet to settle a permanent law. Ambassadors in the Council backed a Cypriot presidency plan to extend the interim derogation, even though the European Parliament rejected an extension in March, setting up a tense trilogue on the EU chat control file scheduled for 29 June.

The interim regime allows services such as WhatsApp and Messenger to voluntarily detect and report abuse imagery. It is set to lapse, and the Council says a stopgap is needed while the wider regulation is finalised. Parliament negotiators counter that reopening the temporary measure now would poison the talks on the lasting rules.

What member states agreed

The Council’s broader negotiating position, fixed in November 2025, drops the most contested idea in the original proposal: mandatory client-side scanning of private messages. Instead it leans on risk assessment and mitigation duties for providers.

  • Online services would have to assess how their products could be misused to share abuse material.
  • Providers would apply measures to reduce those risks, such as abuse-reporting tools or limits on how content is shared.
  • The interim derogation permitting voluntary scanning would be extended into 2027 while the full law is negotiated.

That marks a retreat from the European Commission’s 2022 plan, which envisaged binding detection orders. Critics had warned such orders could break end-to-end encryption for hundreds of millions of users.

Why Parliament is resisting

MEPs across groups argue the move undercuts their own mandate. Centre-left lawmakers say the priority should be targeted detection ordered by a court, not a blanket prolongation that pre-empts the trilogue.

“As European Parliament we were always in favour of targeted detection,” said Birgit Sippel, the Socialists and Democrats negotiator, adding that “reopening the discussion about a possible prolongation of the interim derogation would hamper those negotiations.”

The centre-right takes a different view. “Protecting children online must not become a victim of political manoeuvering,” said Javier Zarzalejos of the European People’s Party, whose group points to a sharp drop in reported abuse material when scanning tools are available. Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged leaders at the 18 June European Council to keep the interim file moving despite the March rejection.

What happens next

The 29 June trilogue brings Parliament, Council and Commission to the same table. If they agree, formal adoption could follow in July. If they do not, the voluntary scanning permission risks lapsing, leaving platforms without clear legal cover to report abuse.

The fight over EU chat control sits on a fault line that has defined the file from the start: how to police the worst online crimes without normalising mass surveillance of private chats. The Council’s general approach on the child sexual abuse law tried to thread that needle by dropping mandatory scanning.

Background

The Commission tabled its regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse in May 2022. It stalled for three years amid warnings from data-protection regulators, security researchers and industry that detection orders amounted to indiscriminate scanning. In March 2026 a parliamentary committee voted down extending the temporary scanning regime, and the full Parliament has insisted on stronger safeguards for encrypted communications.

The temporary derogation that the Council now wants to extend was always meant as a bridge. Its repeated prolongation underlines how far apart the institutions remain. Whether the 29 June talks deliver a durable EU chat control law, or merely buy more time, will shape Europe’s approach to online child safety and digital privacy for years.

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