Christel SCHALDEMOSE (S&D, DK) and Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE) hold a joint press conference in Strasbourg on the outcome of the final vote of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

SCHWAB, Andreas (EPP, DE)

SCHALDEMOSE, Christel (S&D, DK)

digital services act (T)

Press conference by Christel SCHALDEMOSE (S&D, DK) and Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), rapporteurs on the outcome of the final vote of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA)

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, I'm really, really happy and proud today also to stand here with my good colleague. And what we have done with the DMA and the DSA is really amazing and it will have an impact out there, which is important. And what we do is that we are sending a very strong and clear signal to the tech industry that what is illegal offline should also be illegal online.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, And if you're not living up to your responsibilities as a company or platform, then you will be sanctioned. We want to have a safe online environment and that is also what we are delivering with the DSA. We are making creating a more fair and a more safe online environment, and I'm really happy about that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, But I would also like to say that that just to avoid any misunderstanding, we are not in the DSA defining what is illegal and what is not illegal. We are saying that if it is illegal, you need to remove it and we are defining how that should be done. And we are then also putting a lot of obligations on the online platforms on how to be aware of illegal content and if their services is amplifying disinformation or cyber violence or things like that, then they have to act.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, And what I am particularly proud of is what we are doing with the black box of algorithms. We are opening up for that and we are making sure that platforms, at least a very large online platforms, will help to make impact assessment and making risk mitigation in case that the algorithms have a negative impact on society, on democracy, on mental health and things like that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, And I do believe that this particular aspect will really make a difference. And in many ways there are so many things. It's really difficult to pick and choose. I've been asked about that. What is the best? You know, what I'm saying is that what we're doing here altogether will really create a difference. It will be safer for consumers. It will be more trustworthy for people wanting to express their point of views democratically and for the businesses they will have a more fair level playing field.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, So altogether we are kind of taking back control and we are having a democratic rulebook in place now for the tech industry. And I would say that that's about time. I mean, the last legislation we adopted was the e-commerce directive back in year 2000, and now we have this. So it will create an impact and it will be safer and better for everyone. And I am so proud about the result and that would not have been happening without the good colleagues here in the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christel SCHALDEMOSE, Rapporteur, And I think that we have seen we have a very broad support behind it. All the groups more or less supported the proposal. And even though it was sometimes difficult to reach an agreement, that's always the case here in the Parliament, I think that we ended up with a good result because we had everybody on board and we tried to listen to all the content. So today it's a very good day for me. It's a very good day for the European Parliament, it's a good day for the European Union and especially it's a good day for all people living some of their lives online.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB, Rapporteur, Thank you so much for being here. And I can just agree with Crystal about what she said, and I would like to explain why we believe that it's a good day because, first of all, no other jurisdiction in the world has taken the courage and also the action to go for a combination, a horizontal combination of laws on markets and fairness in markets, and on laws on services and products and the responsibility of platforms on this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB, Rapporteur, That's a real step. It changes the surrounding, it changes the basic conditions. And to manage this without bad and nasty discussions in the public is something that we should praise. We have had in the European Parliament some experiences on this, that has been totally avoided. For sure there were some smart steps, some intelligent solutions, but I think in the end, not only the Parliament has sharpened and improved both of these laws, but also we have been able to keep them in a way to make them futureproof and to, as Crystal has said, to balance it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB, Rapporteur, It's it's a very balanced approach, although we have sharpened in some areas, and this could now be outlined in thousands of little examples. I don't want to go too much into the details for the digital markets, but I think it is a very modest but very clear and committed step that we do. We don't change the basic pattern. We don't create bureaucracy for everyone. We focus very much on the points in the digital system that create the biggest problems. And for these, we leave a lot of liberty and freedom and responsibility for the companies concerned.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB, Rapporteur, And therefore, it's now up to these gatekeepers that will be designated by the European Commission to take up their responsibility and to explain what they had always done so far by saying: "It's the algorithm stupid". If it's stupid, they can easily explain it and we will look forward to understand better. And if markets get fairer, it's what we want to achieve. And like that, I think we can be also very optimistic that enforcement will work.

Q&amp;A, Question regarding whether there is sufficient funds for hiring the right kind of staff to enforce the demand, and whether big tech companies shadow lobbying in the EP has had an effect on on the DMA and DSA.

Q&amp;A, Question regarding whether they have an estimate of the amount of staff that will be working on the DMA and DSA. Second question regarding the differences on the votes between the far right groups and the rest.

Q&amp;A, Question regarding the DSA deliverations to take down illegal broadcasts of live sports.

Q&amp;A, Question regarding when the first gatekeeper designations will be made and the criteria to decide who will lead the DMA and DSA.