Tonight, a conciliation committee meeting will take place between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. Both institutions will try to resolve their year-long dispute over amendment 138 by considering a worthless compromise proposal.
In the past days, some Members of the Parliament have been convinced to depart from the strong protection for the freedom of expression and communication granted by amendment 138. They bought the arguments put forward by the Council, as well as the Parliament's own legal services who conducted a biased analysis at the request of rapporteurs Catherine Trautmann and Alejo Vidal-Quadras. According to amendment 138 opponents, the European treaties do not allow the Parliament to require that Member States adapt their judicial system to better protect European citizens. However, case law seems to indicate that this is just an abusive argument aimed at concealing their political timidity.
Amendment 138, provides that “no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities”.
