‘EU wants to present measures in June on access to encrypted chats’

The European Union wants to come up with measures in June that should make it easier for investigative services to find out the content of encrypted messages. This concerns legislation and voluntary measures, including aimed at services such as WhatsApp.

Euractiv writes this on the basis of a statement from Věra Jourová, the European Commissioner for Justice. According to her, these are ‘three or four options’, including binding regulations and voluntary agreements with companies. The latter measures are intended to ensure a rapid solution, as regulatory negotiations can often take a very long time. It is unclear what the exact content of the measures will be.

Jourová said: “Right now, judges, officers and the police depend on the cooperation of providers in accessing evidence. This is not the way we can guarantee the safety of Europeans by relying only on voluntary actions.” According to Euractiv, the measures are the result of pressure from France, Germany and the UK. For example, Germany wants the same obligations to apply to services such as WhatsApp and Skype as to telecom providers.

France and Germany have long called for a legal obligation to allow access to encrypted messages. For example, in August the countries expressed a joint position with this view. Several EU countries indicated in November that their investigative services often run into encryption in criminal investigations. European Commissioner Julian King said in December that there were as yet no plans to introduce legislation in the field of encryption.