Arrivals at the informal meeting of EU justice ministers hosted by the Irish presidency, Dublin Castle, 17 July 2026. Photo: Council of the EU, © European Union, 2026.
The Council’s position on the permanent Chat Control law, agreed on 26 November 2025, would make voluntary scanning permanent: its press release says the Council wants “to make permanent a currently temporary measure” that lets companies scan their services for child sexual abuse. The European Parliament wants detection orders aimed at individuals or groups linked to child sexual abuse, using “reasonable grounds of suspicion”.
That leaves a second question beside mandatory detection: may scanning reach only people under suspicion, or everyone? Since 3 October the governments page records, for each of the 27, what is on record on it, each row with the document behind it.
What the documents say
Most rows rest on reports by Germany’s Permanent Representation on closed Council meetings, published in full by netzpolitik.org. They record what delegations said, not how they voted.
- Poland, justice and home affairs counsellors, 17 June: general monitoring is to be avoided, and detection in non-public communication may only be targeted (“dass ein generelles Monitoring zu vermeiden sei und Aufdeckung im nicht-öffentlichen Bereich nur gezielt erfolgen dürfe”).
- France, counsellors, 10 June: a broad scope for voluntary detection, with “keinen Spielraum für Verhandlungen”, no room for negotiation.
- Ten governments, ambassadors, 13 March, on the interim rules: Hungary, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Latvia, Slovakia, Malta, Estonia, Slovenia and Romania “waren nicht zu Zugeständnissen beim Anwendungsbereich bereit”, were not ready to concede on the scope.
- Germany, an internal government position paper reported by dpa on 29 September: voluntary searching “dürfe nicht von einer vorherigen Erlaubnis oder ähnlichen Einschränkungen abhängen”, must not depend on prior permission or similar restrictions.
- The Council itself, document 11956/26 of 10 September: 14 governments replied, and “most Member States responding are in principle opposed to the concept of targeting detection to specific users”. It does not name them.
The numbers
Shares of the EU population, from the record’s own table.
- Suspects only: 1 government, Poland, 8.3 %.
- Everyone, kept broad: 13 governments, 59.2 %: Germany, France, Spain, Romania, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia and Malta.
- Limits, but not suspects only: 4 governments, 16.6 %: Italy, Austria, Finland and Luxembourg.
- Nothing on record: 9 governments, 15.9 %: the Netherlands, Czechia, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania and Cyprus.
Of the nine governments against mandatory scanning of private messages, 32.9 % of the EU population, only Poland is on record for scanning suspects only. Slovakia and Estonia are on record for keeping voluntary scanning broad.
What to keep in mind
Most statements are three to seven months old; the newest is Germany’s paper of 29 September. Sweden’s and Romania’s come from governments that are being replaced. Where a government said both things, its row says so: Estonia refused to narrow the interim rules in March and asked in June to narrow the scope to what technology can do.
What it changes in the record
The section “Suspects only, or everyone?” on the governments page, added on 3 October, lists the 27 rows with their sources. The count on mandatory detection does not change: nine governments against, 32.9 % of the EU population. No position label changed. If a row is wrong, or a document moves a government, tell us and it is corrected within 24 hours.
Sources
- Brussels Record, “Suspects only, or everyone?”, governments page, 3 October 2026.
- Council of the EU, press release on the Council’s position, 26 November 2025.
- European Parliament, press release on the Parliament’s mandate, 14 November 2023.
- netzpolitik.org, Markus Reuter, report with the German record of the ambassadors’ meeting of 13 March, 20 March 2026.
- netzpolitik.org, Andre Meister, report with the German record of the counsellors’ meeting of 10 June, 12 June 2026.
- netzpolitik.org, Andre Meister, report with the German record of the counsellors’ meeting of 17 June, 2 July 2026.
- dpa, report on the German government’s position paper, 29 September 2026, via beck-aktuell.
- Council of the EU, document 11956/26 of 10 September 2026, LIMITE, as published by Agence Europe.
