EU Parliament Revives Chat Control 1.0 Through Procedural Trick Before Recess

The European Parliament narrowly cleared the path to reinstate the so-called “Chat Control” transitional regulation, voting 331 to 304 (with eleven abstentions) in favor of an urgency motion. Parliament President Roberta Metsola added the item to the agenda on short notice at the request of member states and the center-right EPP group, setting up a decisive vote on Thursday — the last session before the summer break. The goal is to revive the exemption that lapsed in April, which had let companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft voluntarily scan private messages, emails, and chats for child sexual abuse material without any specific suspicion. Parliament had already rejected extending this regime by clear majorities in March and April.

The maneuver drew sharp objections. Pirate MEP Markéta Gregorová accused the EPP of running a farce and breaking Parliament’s own rules, while AfD MEP Mary Khan described it as salami-tactics to force through a previously defeated law. Four EU Commissioners piled on pressure with a last-minute letter warning of a dangerous enforcement gap. The rapporteur, SPD’s Birgit Sippel, called the move unfair and withheld support — but her Social Democratic group ultimately backed the urgency procedure, supplying the votes needed to advance it.

The procedural setup heavily favors the proposal’s backers. Because the file sits in second reading, opponents need an absolute majority of 361 votes to amend or reject it, whereas supporters only need a simple majority of those present — a low bar given how many MEPs leave before recess. Security researchers have repeatedly flagged the unacceptably high error rates of the AI scanners at issue, and a Society for Informatics board member has filed an urgent challenge with Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court. Critics such as Patrick Breyer warn that reviving the stopgap will ease pressure on governments to negotiate a more targeted permanent replacement for the stalled Chat Control 2.0.