Overview

• The Council removed the 14 October vote from its agenda after Coreper failed to secure agreement on the child sexual abuse detection regulation.
• Germany's opposition denied the proposal the qualified majority required, sending talks back to technical working groups.
• The new compromise would allow analysis of messages only where a specific, documented and verifiable risk is identified, subject to a judge’s approval.
• End‑to‑end encryption would not be weakened by permanent access points, and the European centre’s role would shift to verifying and coordinating reports rather than supplying detection tools.
• Data retention periods would be shorter and users and providers would gain stronger rights to challenge decisions, as civil-society groups and major platforms continue to warn of mass surveillance risks and cite the UK’s recent over‑removal experience.