On the 23rd April, a trilogue agreement was reached on the Digital Services Act. The agreement on the regulation, that can be summarised as “what is illegal offline is illegal online”, was now rejected by different political groups in the European Parliament (EPP, Renew, Greens, and the Left) before a formal vote in the IMCO committee. The above-mentioned groups did not agree on recital 28 and 29, which were added at a technical level after the political agreement. Recitals are essentially an introduction to the legislation that is not legally binding but that influences the understanding of the regulation.

The French presidency of the Council has now three options:

1. Propose to the COREPER (Committee of Permanent Representatives, that prepares the work of the Council) the text without recital 28 and 29, as the Parliament prefers. This would end the issue and have a quick adoption of the text. 
2. Propose to the COREPER the text with the discussed recitals. This would conclude the first reading of the legislative procedure and move the file to the second reading (essentially delaying the adoption of the legislation by about 6 months).  
3. Wait for the upcoming Czech presidency to take lead of the file. This would generate more uncertainty as there is a risk that the Czech would derail the act.

Click here to read more. 

Source: Euractiv

Photo credits: European Union