Formally, this Wednesday in the internal committee of the newly elected European Parliament (LIBE) it was not about the much-discussed “chat control”, but about adjustments and harmonisation, among other things, in the criminal law for which the Member States are responsible. These were launched in parallel with the EU Commission’s planned regulation to tackle depictions of sexual abuse (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSA-VO)).
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“These two tools complement and depend on each other,” explained outgoing EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson, stressing the importance of the project: Europe is the main storage location for depictions of child sexual abuse.
Regulations for criminal possession offences should be harmonised
In particular, the statute of limitations should be significantly extended: 20 years for crimes with a minimum prison sentence of three years, 25 years for a minimum prison sentence of five years, 30 years from the age of adulthood for crimes with a minimum prison sentence of eight years. This is intended to take into account the long-term trauma of victims. Many Member States currently have no specific rules, but rules in other countries are largely in line with the current proposal.
Minimum sentences are usually only given to active offenders, and even possession offences are usually quite mild; Member States should clearly remain free to decide how they want to deal with criminal offences involving images voluntarily made available to each other by minors. An important and no less controversial regulation concerns victims of sexual abuse: in the future, they should be better supported and cared for by Member States and victims should be financially compensated.
This is one of the things on the agenda today. Complementary regulation It was also not about internet service providers, the EU interior commissioner said. However, the EU Commission’s proposal includes, among other things, a new Article 8, which prohibits the “knowing operation or management” of an information society service designed to commit crimes in the field of creating, transmitting or initiating depictions of sexual abuse. This would carry a minimum sentence of one year for minors across Europe.
The Council is continuing its consultations
With this proposal, Johansson hopes that member states that have not yet been able to agree on a common position on the CSA regulation will soon come to an agreement; in contrast to the CSAM regulation, which is known under the keyword “chat control”. Johansson said in the LIBE committee on Wednesday afternoon: “I have not submitted any proposal for mass surveillance.” She was defending herself after accusations from the nationalist Sweden Democrats – who otherwise spoke in favour of national rules on the mandatory castration of offenders.
For Johansson, it is important to learn from other countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States – and how they tackle related problems. “We don’t know what works,” she wanted to be honest. But “doing something about it” is imperative.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of Member States (Korper) discussed a proposal from the Hungarian Council presidency that the obligation to carry out automatic searches in messenger services for content containing depictions of sexual abuse should be limited to hash values of those that have already been recorded. But this new proposal, with which the Hungarians wanted to allay concerns about a blocking minority in the Council, does not yet seem to be acceptable to all EU member states. If the Council reaches an agreement, the trilogue could soon be followed, in which the Parliament and the Council would explore possible compromises with the Commission – the Parliament had already taken a clear position, but the majority has changed since the European elections.
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