Brussels, 13 July 2026 – The European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group (ECLAG) and DOT Europe, voice of the leading online services in Europe, have published a joint statement calling on the Council of the European Union to approve without delay the amendments adopted by the European Parliament in its second reading of the interim derogation to the ePrivacy Directive.
The statement urges the Irish Presidency to move swiftly to restore a clear and stable legal basis for the voluntary detection, reporting, and removal of child sexual abuse material — and emphasises that the detection technologies used under this derogation operate on privacy-by-design principles, in full compliance with transparency and privacy requirements.
The lapse of the previous derogation in April 2026 created an unsustainable legal vacuum that substantially weakened child protection across the EU. Every week without a legal basis is a week that voluntary, proactive detection efforts cannot take place with explicit legal certainty.
