Brussels, BELGIUM – Moments ago, the European Parliament adopted its position on the proposed new EU rules for the transparency and targeting of political advertising (TTPA). Together with the Council’s position, today’s plenary vote clears the way for the final inter-institutional negotiations on the TTPA proposal.
Yet the Parliament’s position contains new ideas that inadvertently would lead to discrepancies with other EU digital legislation, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and last year’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Likewise, the legislative text still lacks clarity on various important points, including the very definition of what “political advertisement” actually is.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) supports the TTPA’s overall objectives and hopes that co-legislators agree on rules that will foster transparency beyond the 2024 European elections. It is now essential, however, that the new obligations are proportionate and stay in line with existing legislation.
In the upcoming final negotiations, co-legislators will need to make sure that all key definitions are crystal clear and that the different actors in the value chain bear their part of the responsibility for promoting political ads. What is more, the proposed 48-hour turnaround time to process notices flagging potentially problematic ads should only apply to those submitted by trustworthy experts and organisations.
CCIA Europe therefore calls on EU lawmakers to ensure that the final TTPA legislation is workable in practice and maintains the benefits of political advertising, which plays an important role in promoting political pluralism and guaranteeing freedom of expression.
The following can be attributed to CCIA Europe’s Senior Policy Manager, Claudia Canelles Quaroni:
“Political advertising helps to promote pluralism and citizen engagement in electoral processes. We hope that the final TTPA text will reflect this with precise definitions and workable rules that will truly increase transparency without contradicting recent legislation such as the Digital Services Act.”
“We thank MEPs for all their hard work and encourage them to keep striving for a clear and balanced political advertising framework that can withstand the passing of time.”