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Live·Scanning your messages is voluntary until April 2028·a deal on the EU Centre on 29 September, none on private messages; next round tentatively in December

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Released: the Council’s own note on the sixth Chat Control trilogue

Who Decides? Pavel Kadlec -
The Council has released to Brussels Record its presidency’s note on the sixth trilogue and the four-column table. What they say about detection orders and encryption.

The record today

  1. Record note: the Council’s own account of the sixth trilogue, released to Brussels Record with its four-column table. Two more papers are due by 18 November.
  2. Week in the record, 19 to 25 October: MLex reports 3 November and 8 December for the next steps; the Council has published neither date.
  3. Record note: the Council’s “possible detection package” of 20 October, and what is public about it. We have asked for both papers.
  4. Nothing published from the Council’s 20 October meetings on “a possible detection package”. Romania has a new government; Sweden’s talks go on.
  5. A public Council record shows the ambassadors “prepared” the sixth trilogue on 23 September. Sweden’s Speaker sets out the next step on 19 October; Romania votes on its government on 20 October.
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Where things stand

LIVE · EU CHAT CONTROL
1.0 IN FORCE until April 2028
2.0 IN NEGOTIATION · EU Centre agreed on 29 September, private messages still open
9 of 27 governments against mandatory scanning · where all 27 stand
The negotiators, ministers and lawyers, by name
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Where the 27 governments stand

Nine against. 2.1 points short of a blocking minority.

Nine governments are on record against mandatory scanning of private messages: 32.9 % of the EU population. Blocking a Council vote takes at least four governments and more than 35 %. Belgium or Portugal would each close the gap; neither has said anything decisive.

Share of the EU populationMore than 35 % blocks a Council vote

  • Against 9
  • Unclear 3
  • Conditional 1
  • Supports 14

Conditional: Germany does not oppose mandatory detection where it supplements voluntary scanning. Each position rests on a document; the latest change was Slovenia, from Against to Unclear, on 9 September 2026.

Every government and the document behind it →Data: CSV · JSON

Map of the 27 EU governments by position on mandatory scanning of private messagesAustria: Against. 2.03 % of the EU populationBelgium: Unclear. 2.63 % of the EU populationBulgaria: Supports. 1.42 % of the EU populationCroatia: Supports. 0.86 % of the EU populationCyprus: Supports. 0.22 % of the EU populationCzechia: Against. 2.42 % of the EU populationDenmark: Supports. 1.32 % of the EU populationEstonia: Against. 0.3 % of the EU populationFinland: Against. 1.24 % of the EU populationFrance: Supports. 15.18 % of the EU populationGermany: Conditional. 18.47 % of the EU populationGreece: Supports. 2.3 % of the EU populationHungary: Supports. 2.11 % of the EU populationIreland: Supports. 1.2 % of the EU populationItaly: Against. 13.19 % of the EU populationLatvia: Supports. 0.41 % of the EU populationLithuania: Supports. 0.64 % of the EU populationLuxembourg: Against. 0.15 % of the EU populationMalta: Supports. 0.13 % of the EU populationNetherlands: Against. 4.02 % of the EU populationPoland: Against. 8.29 % of the EU populationPortugal: Unclear. 2.38 % of the EU populationRomania: Supports. 4.21 % of the EU populationSlovakia: Against. 1.21 % of the EU populationSlovenia: Unclear. 0.47 % of the EU populationSpain: Supports. 10.86 % of the EU populationSweden: Supports. 2.34 % of the EU population

Hover or tap a country for its page. Grey: not in the EU. Source: Brussels Record, governments page; map: Natural Earth.

This week

The Council has released two of its working papers on the regulation to Brussels Record and published them: the presidency’s outcome note of the sixth trilogue and the 575-page four-column table after the technical meeting of 10 September. The note records agreement in principle on detection orders for public content, limited to known material, and none on private messages, where the presidency said it “did not have a mandate to agree with detection orders in private content”. It puts the seventh trilogue “tentatively” in December at the European Parliament; MLex and Patrick Breyer give 8 December. Two more papers are due by 18 November. In Sweden, the Speaker is consulting the party leaders after Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist reported on her exploratory mandate on 26 October. No government changed its position on the regulation.

Our record note →The presidency’s note →The four-column table →The record today →Open the tracker →

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