Welcome to EURACTIV’s Tech Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
“European consumers were frustrated long with multiple chargers piling up with every new device. Now they will be able to use a single charger for all their portable electronics.”
– Alex Agius Saliba, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the common charger
Story of the week: The single charger for small and medium electronic devices is becoming a reality following the interinstitutional agreement reached on Tuesday. The official adoption is expected by September or October at the latest, and it will enter into application after two years in 2024. Or 15 years after the first European Parliament’s resolution on the matter. Laptops will be the exception and will have 40 months to enter into application as they need more time to align with the new standard. MEPs’ managed to get most of their points through, aided by the fact that the French Presidency was determined to close the file before the end of its semester.
As a result, the USB Type C entry port will become the standard for smartphones, cameras, headphones, laptops, e-readers, navigation systems, keyboards and mice. The list of applicable devices will be updated after three years and reviewed every five years beyond that point. The charging speed for fast-charging cables has also been harmonised. Consumers will be able to buy the device with or without the charger, and the Commission is to assess in four years whether to make such anti-bundling measures mandatory. The EU executive will also have to request standardisation organisations develop a technical standard for wireless technology, which could then be adopted as mandatory in the single market. Read more.
Don’t miss: EURACTIV obtained the draft list of priorities that the Czech Presidency will announce on 15 June. As expected, Ukraine tops the list, with the most pressing issues including the energy crisis, defence, economic resilience and defence of democracy. The cyber dimension has been fully integrated into the EU’s security posture, with the upcoming Presidency focusing on developing the Hybrid Toolbox to counter disinformation and cyber-attacks. All emergencies aside, in terms of legislation, Prague seems determined to prioritise the digital files. More or less explicitly, the document refers to the Chips Act and the need to collaborate with the US on supply chain resilience in the context of the Trade and Technology Council, the European Digital Identify Wallet, the Data Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. A few mentions of the need to protect media independence also seem to give a nod to the upcoming Media Freedom Act. The emphasis is completely on the internal market, confirming the Czech strong position in the club of ‘friends of the single market’.
Also, this week:
- WhatsApp has one month to prove it did not breach EU consumer law
- Centre-right MEPs prepare a united front against the rapporteur’s version of the platform workers’ directive
- China made a new attempt to lure developing countries into its vision of the internet this week
- The digital skills shortage is becoming a matter of (cyber)security
- France sought to clarify the key concepts of the Regulation on political ads
Before we start: Measures addressing copyright infringements are often a hot topic in EU digital policies. We discussed what is the state of play and trends in the EU with Alexandra Poch, Deputy Director of the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, and Julio Laporta, Head of Communication and Spokesperson at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
Artificial Intelligence
Let’s get to work. After the thousands of amendments to the AI Act, the MEPs have scheduled 10 technical meetings from 11 July to 14 October. The hectic submissions did not help, as the secretariat is still busy putting the amendments together. All the groups squeezed as much as possible, meaning some amendments might be repeated, inadmissible, or contradict each other. Therefore, the final number of admitted amendments might be lower than those that have circulated so far.
Competition
Getting things sorted. Amazon is reportedly close to reaching a settlement with the European Commission over two competition investigations into its treatment of small vendors on its website. According to Politico, negotiations over potential commitments are ongoing with the sharing of third-party data with sellers using the site on the table as a possible concession. If accepted, an agreement would put an end to both probes, which are focused on the tech firm’s behaviour as both a retailer and marketplace operator.
Cybersecurity
Who will keep us safe? Addressing the tech talent shortage in cybersecurity must be made a priority, sector experts have said, particularly as online threats rise. “We can enlarge the digital single market for market access for businesses. But if we do not have the right people, none of this is going to materialise”, Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager told EURACTIV this week, echoing the concerns of cybersecurity experts who have warned that the EU’s shortfall in tech skills is becoming a security problem as it limits the EU’s capacity to combat and anticipate threats. Read more.
Keep your guard up. While no cyberattack linked to the war in Ukraine has yet had a major impact, states must remain on alert for potential incidents, the head of the EU’s cybersecurity agency (ENISA) said this week. Straight-up attacks are not the only issue, Juhan Lepassaar also said. Out of the 300 cyber events related to the war that ENISA has registered, 100 were “spillover incidents”, in which countries other than the direct target were impacted. These spillover incidents may be the focus of the next Cyber Europe edition, a twice-yearly exercise in cyber-preparedness, which this year focused on the health sector’s readiness to respond to an attack. Read more.
Internal and external foes. The greatest extremist threat in Germany continues to come from right-wing extremists, as the 2021 report shows. However, the threat situation has taken on a new dimension with the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, which is why, according to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Germany needs to “strengthen its defences, especially against cyber-attacks”. Russia, in particular, is exerting influence, primarily through disinformation. The scope of political espionage and influence activities by China has also increased.
Data & privacy
One-month deadline. WhatsApp has one month to prove to EU authorities that it has not breached EU consumer protection rules as part of an investigation into the messaging service. The Commission and EU consumer authorities wrote to the Meta-owned platform this week calling for clarification on outstanding concerns raised by the inquiry, which stemmed from a 2021 complaint by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) accusing WhatsApp of having unduly pushed its users to consent to its new privacy policy without providing an adequate explanation of its terms. The Commission in January officially asked the service for clarification, setting off a series of discussions which left the EU executive not fully satisfied, prompting the latest development in the probe. The tech company will have to explain how it intends to inform users about future updates to its terms and conditions and whether it monetises their data. Read more.
Don’t even try it. The French data protection watchdog CNIL made sure to kill all the hopes that Google Analytics might be used legally. The influential authority found the analytical tool was unduly transferring data to the United States, despite the jurisprudence of the Scherms II case. With a Q&A published this week, the data protection authority rejected the safeguards offered by the tech giant and the precautions website publishers could take to make the tool compliant with EU law.
eGovernance
Digital Wallet moves forward. Romana Jerković, the ITRE rapporteur for the eIDAS Regulation, published a draft report this week proposing significant changes to the proposal for the European Digital Identity Wallet, which the EU aims to have available in every member state by 2023. Among the areas in which Jerković has proposed changes are data protection, access, transparency and cross-border identification, and the MEP has suggested using the “once-only principle” – whereby users would only have to supply their data to public authorities one time – to cut the administrative burden of introducing the framework and ensure a broader uptake. Read more.
Gig economy
Ready to fight. This week, Renew and EPP lawmakers filed parallel amendments to the platform workers’ directive to push back against the initiative’s draft report, written by social democrat Elisabetta Gulamini. The liberal and conservative groups had both raised concerns about what they said was the potential for the proposal to fatally wound the gig economy, particularly through a provision which would install the presumption that workers are employees and place the burden of disputing this on companies. The centre-right parties’ suggestions, expected to be discussed in committee in July or September, would raise the bar for this classification, and their coordination could signal a burgeoning broader coalition on the issue. Read more.
Open up the backbox. Collating information on platform companies and making it publicly available would be a critical step in improving both service provision and working conditions, a report by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung has found. The foundation of the German social-democrats looked at online platforms and platform work in Europe, concluding that platform work is largely misunderstood and that examinations of workers’ experiences need to take a wholesale view of the platform economy, particularly its impact on disadvantaged groups. National registries of information about companies and their deployment of automated systems would go a long way, FES says, in establishing a culture of social dialogue and shaping the future of policymaking in the sector.
Industrial strategy
Cloud of interest. The French Minister for Public Transformation and Civil Service, Stanislas Guerini, has to transfer his responsibilities in the field of cloud services for public administrations due to possible conflicts of interest as his wife works for Google Cloud France. By decree, this responsibility has been transferred to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, in accordance with French rules, which stipulate that “the minister who considers that he or she is in a conflict of interest situation must inform the prime minister in writing, specifying the content of the issues for which he or she considers that he or she should not exercise his or her responsibilities”.
Chips Act under the microscope. The German think tank Stiftung Neue Verantwortung published the first of a series of papers on the Chips Act, the EU proposal to strengthen the European semiconductor ecosystem. The response is not particularly positive, as the experts assessed the proposed government supply chain monitoring is not fit for purpose and will not work in this form as it would require member states to strictly monitor the supply chain. Instead, the paper says that more transparency and a thorough overview of supply chains should be required from industry and end-users.
Orientation debate. At the Competitiveness Council on Thursday, Commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton reiterated the main goals and three pillars of the Chips Act and opened the discussion with member states. The topics of ensuring a “circular economy” and “level playing field”, where all kinds of companies from big and small countries across all member states should be integrated, were emphasised. The member states welcomed the dossier and emphasised the urgency to act fast. However, the Netherlands and Finland lamented the lack of an impact assessment and several countries pointed out that an administrative burden shall not stand in the way of implementation.
No sovereignty in tech. There is substantial room for improvement regarding the EU’s technological sovereignty, according to the European Sovereignty Index, released by the European Council on Foreign Relations. EU member states received an average score of 4.8 in technological sovereignty, the lowest out of all the categories measured by the Index, but were generally found to score substantially higher in commitment than capability. To improve, the report says, the EU should focus on developing globally competitive critical technologies and regulating their dissemination and use and should avoid too much dependence on other powers for crucial tech.
Internet governance
Same song, new verse. China’s long-standing campaign to reshape internet governance has seen a new chapter this week, as Beijing pushed for mentioning IPv6+ in the resolution of the development conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN’s telecommunications agency. IPv6+ is a commercial product developed by Huawei rather than a technical standard, as the name misleadingly suggests. It replicates several of the features introduced with the new IP proposal, with all the problems in terms of internet censorship and surveillance they entail, while also incorporating features typical of new generations of networks like 5G. Experts warn that this rebranding strategy intends to appeal to countries in the Global South that have been lagging in terms of deploying the version of the Internet Protocol IPv6. Read more.
Law enforcement
Customs at the border. A regulation establishing a digital cooperation platform for Joint Investigation Teams (JTIs) has been adopted by EU Justice Ministers, but customs officials have been excluded from access to it, despite German pressure. The platform will act as a more secure channel of exchange for information, evidence and communications between the two or more teams involved in cross-border investigations and will be available to Eurojust, Europol and the European Anti-Fraud Office. Customs officers, however, will not be able to use it, despite intense lobbying from Berlin. Read more.
Platforms
Clearing things out. The French Council Presidency has issued a compromise text on the proposed legislation to regulate political advertisement, adding criteria for qualifying content and clarifying certain points concerning its application. According to a document obtained by Contexte, the definitions of political ads, actors, and sponsors have been somewhat amended, and the text has been updated to explicitly exclude the EU Court of Justice, the European Central Bank, and the Court of Auditors. Amongst the other areas in which updates have been made are the period for addressing notifications about ads in the run-up to elections, the interaction of the Regulation with existing measures on political ads and transparency requirements for the online platforms hosting them. Read more.
Research & Innovation
More money, more scrutiny. The European Innovation Council will manage €20 million in funding for Ukrainian deep tech start-ups to integrate them into the EU’s tech ecosystem. The announcement, however, comes just days after MEP Christian Ehler launched an investigation into the beleaguered fund, which has come under fierce criticism since its launch last year for delays which have left many companies without the grants they were pledged. Read more.
Telecom
Not only telco vs platforms. Over 30 civil society organisations have written an open letter to Commissioners Vestager and Breton in response to their plans to require Big Tech firms to contribute to the upkeep of internet infrastructure, a move long pushed for by the telecom sector. Civil society organisations stepped in also to avoid the debate becoming a mere diatribe between the platforms and telecom operators. Echoing concerns raised by the ITRE committee, which in a different file rejected wording going in the same direction as per the Commission’s proposal, the signatories argued that the plans would undermine the principle of net neutrality and that nothing has materially changed since similar efforts were rejected by EU and global governments in the past. The group has also criticised the Commission for supporting the proposal without public involvement and accuses the EU executive of acting “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how the internet works”.
What else we’re reading this week:
Distilling the essence of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act discussion draft (IAPP)
FTC Chair Lina Khan says gaming is ‘top of mind,’ especially AR and VR (Protocol)
The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question (Wired)
Mathieu Pollet and Laura Kabelka contributed to the reporting.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]