EU Council revives expired 'Chat Control' message scanning via pre-holiday fast-track

With mandatory scanning proposals (“Chat Control 2.0”) stalled in the EU Parliament, the Council of Ministers has changed tactics to resurrect the voluntary version that lapsed on April 3. Because a European E-Privacy exemption that let messaging, webmail, and VoIP providers scan private chats for abuse material and grooming cannot simply be extended once expired, the Council adopted—by written procedure—a new regulation that is nearly identical in substance but repackaged as fresh legislation to sidestep the formal problem and pressure MEPs.

The timing is the sharp edge. The proposal is slated for Parliament’s agenda under an urgent procedure right before the summer recess, potentially forcing a vote on the last session day when many members have already left. Because the file sits at second reading, blocking or amending the Council’s position requires an absolute majority against it—a threshold critics call practically unreachable in a depleted, pre-holiday chamber. Opponents frame the whole maneuver as an end-run around democratic scrutiny designed to catch Parliament off guard.

The Council defends the measure as an essential tool for identifying at-risk children and stemming the spread of illegal imagery, insisting scans stay narrowly scoped rather than indiscriminate, with processed content and traffic data to be deleted within twelve months absent a confirmed suspicion. Even so, the revival keeps AI- and hash-based inspection of ordinary users’ communications in play, while a stable, long-term legal framework for abuse prevention remains as distant as ever.