The Telecommunications, Transport and Energy ministers are yet to have ironed out their disagreements on the proposed Regulation.
Background: The e-Privacy Regulation proposal of the European Commission dates back to January 2017 with the aim to replace the current e-Privacy Directive on the processing of personal data in electronic communications. Among other aspects, the proposal put telcos and OTTs on an equal footing, and gave telcos some more scope to find ways to monetise communications metadata. The EU Parliament adopted its text in October 2017; since then, the Council has not yet managed to adopt a text for the trilogue negotiations.
What’s happening: During this year there have been attempts in the Council to agree on a common text. The Austrian presidency, which started in July and will finish at the end of 2018, has redrafted the text several times, but only partially succeeded. Some countries have a more privacy-protective approach, whereas others appear keen to foster innovation and investment; also, the complexity of the matter does not help speeding things up. Today’s debate in council saw the approval of a progress report, taking stock of the work that has been done so far; but wide differences remain on the table.
Is there an end of sight? Not just yet. The Romanian presidency of the Council will take the matter in its hands early next year, and will have to try and build on what has been slowly built by the Austrian presidency. It looks like a tough task though, especially seeing as European elections are looming, and we will have to see the make-up of the next Commission and of the next EU Parliament.
