EU Parliament Adopts Position on Chat Control: No General Surveillance in Force

Brussels – 19 July 2026: The debate over the EU rules known as Chat Control has been accompanied by far-reaching claims. Following the European Parliament’s decision of 9 July, however, neither general surveillance of all private messages has been adopted nor has the end of end-to-end encryption been put into force. Rather, the parliamentary procedure for the temporary regulation has not yet been completed.

The matter concerns a time-limited exemption from European rules protecting the confidentiality of electronic communications. It is intended to allow providers of certain communications services to voluntarily use technologies to detect, report and remove known child sexual abuse material from their services. This does not create an obligation for all messaging services or for all users.

The previous exemption expired on 3 April 2026. On 2 July, the Council of the European Union presented a position under which the voluntary measures would again be permitted until 3 April 2028. Parliament subsequently considered the proposal under an accelerated procedure and made its decision at second reading on 9 July. According to Parliament’s Legislative Observatory, a further decision by the Council is now pending.

This means that the claim that Parliament alone introduced permanent surveillance of private communications is false. Under the ordinary legislative procedure, an EU law is only adopted once Parliament and the Council agree on the same text. The current procedural status therefore means that the temporary exemption has not yet entered into force again.

The claim that the vote abolished end-to-end encryption is equally misleading. The version supported by Parliament in March explicitly provided for end-to-end encrypted communications to be exempt from the voluntary measures. The second reading now under way concerns the Council’s differing position. Which final safeguards would apply therefore depends on the Council’s further decision.

Moreover, the regulation does not concern the permanent EU law on preventing and combating child sexual abuse online that has been under negotiation for years. Legally and politically, this initiative must be distinguished from the current transitional solution. According to the EU institutions, the transitional arrangement is intended to close a gap while negotiations on the long-term framework continue.

Criticism of possible interference with privacy and the confidentiality of communications remains part of the political debate. For the current assessment, however, the key point is this: the debate concerns voluntary measures by individual providers under a temporary exemption. As of 19 July 2026, it cannot be inferred that there will be a blanket assessment of all messages, that encryption has been abolished, or that permanent legislation has already been definitively adopted.