Council of the EU agrees on negotiating position on ePrivacy Regulation
On February 10th, Member States’ representatives from the Council of the EU agreed on a negotiating mandate for the draft ePrivacy Regulation after almost four years of intense discussions.
The text approved by the EU Member States was put forward by Portugal’s Presidency and will set the basis of the Council’s negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission on the final terms of the ePrivacy Regulation.
Yet, negotiations among the three institutions are expected to face substantial hurdles, notably about the permissions for accessing content and metadata of electronic communications as well as on data retention provisions. Further challenges in striking an agreement are also likely to come from the need to consider the impact of the ePrivacy Regulation on other legislative initiatives in the EU pipeline which will affect the Digital Single Market, including the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Data Governance Act and new rules on Artificial Intelligence.
