EU CSA Regulation (Chat Control 2.0)
What it does
The proposed CSA Regulation would let authorities issue detection orders forcing services to scan private communications for abuse material, with the reach into end-to-end encryption as the central fight. Parliament's November 2023 mandate drew the lines: no scanning of encrypted services, judicial warrants, no suspicionless scanning. The Council deadlocked for two years until Germany's 2025 shift against mandatory suspicionless scanning broke the logjam toward a softened position built on voluntary detection, endorsed in November 2025. Five trilogue rounds between December 2025 and June 2026 failed to close the gap, the Council's own Legal Service warned in June that even the voluntary regime violates Article 7 of the Charter, and the fifth round collapsed on June 29 over permanent suspicionless scanning. Negotiations resume under the Irish presidency in September.
Why it matters
This is the West's central fight over whether private communication survives. Whatever text emerges becomes the global template: a mandate here is cited in Washington and London within the year. And the voluntary regime of Chat Control 1.0 runs alongside as the ratchet, keeping scanning normalized while the permanent version is negotiated.
Our take
Four years in, nobody has explained how you scan encrypted messages without breaking encryption for everyone, because there is no answer. The Council's own lawyers now say the voluntary version violates the Charter. The strategy left is attrition: keep the interim regime alive, stall the permanent text, and wait for a presidency willing to force it. September is the next attempt, and the Council's label for the scanning is voluntary, the same label the 1.0 regime has carried for seven years.
Timeline
- May 11, 2022Proposed by the European Commission
- November 14, 2023Parliament mandate: no scanning of encrypted services, judicial warrants required
- June 20, 2024Council vote pulled after the blocking minority held
- October 8, 2025Germany came out against mandatory scanning, forcing Denmark to drop detection orders
- November 26, 2025Council general approach adopted without debate at COREPER, built on voluntary scanning
- December 15, 2025Trilogue negotiations began; four rounds through May without agreement
- June 10, 2026Council Legal Service warned voluntary scanning violates Charter Article 7
- June 29, 2026Fifth trilogue round failed over permanent suspicionless scanning
Related bills
Our coverage: all chat-control stories · Status checked July 16, 2026