- The EU Commission presented a roadmap on the way it intends to guarantee that the police have effective and legal access to the data of citizens
- Politicians seek to establish a precedent for the decryption of private data
- The roadmap is part of the protective strategy, unveiled for the first time in April 2025
EU law application may be able to decrypt your private data by 2030.
This is one of the ambitious objectives that the EU Commission presented in its roadmap on June 24, 2025. A plan on how the block intends to guarantee “legitimate and effective” access to the police to the data of citizens.
The roadmap is the first step forward in the Protectuu strategy, unveiled for the first time in April 2025 – but confidentiality experts have already started to raise the alarm.
How the EU plans to achieve lawful access to data
Protectuu represents the internal strategy of the EU Commission to strengthen the security of the European block in the coming years.
It follows from the work of the high-level group (HLG) continued under the so-called dark initiative. The group was responsible, by the EU Council in June 2023, to develop a strategic plan “on access to data for effective law enforcement”.
More specifically, the group’s final report, published in March 2025, described end -to -end encryption of “the biggest technical challenge” to the survey of law enforcement agencies, explicitly targeting the use of the best VPN services, encrypted messaging applications and similar tools.
The roadmap marks a key element in the strategy, providing more details on how legislators plan to resolve what they call “the growing challenges of access to critical digital evidence” during criminal investigations.
The plan focuses on six key areas:
- Data retention. The EU Commission should carry out an impact assessment in order to extend EU data retention obligations and to strengthen cooperation between service providers and authorities.
- LICITE interception. Legislators seek to explore measures to improve cross -border cooperation for a legal interception of data by 2027.
- Country of digital legal medicine. The objective here is to develop technical solutions that allow authorities to analyze and preserve digital evidence stored on electronic devices.
- Decryption. Next year, the European Commission is expected to present a technological roadmap on encryption to identify and assess decryption solutions. These technologies should equip Europol officers from 2030.
- Standardization. The Commission would be determined to work alongside Europol, industry stakeholders, experts and law enforcers to normalize the new internal security approach.
- AI solutions for the police. Legislators also seek to promote the development and deployment of AI tools by 2028. These solutions will allow Authorities to process legally and effectively large volumes of data entered.
What experts say
Experts have long warned of the plans offered to break encryption, which means the technology responsible for the jamming of data in an illegible form to avoid unauthorized access.
Now, according to the main director of the Internet company, Robin Wilton, another development towards the decryption of private data is worrying.
“The efforts to develop decryption techniques almost inevitably introduce new vulnerabilities that could be exploited by anyone with motivation and know-how; they can also encourage the” hobby “of vulnerabilities, which is contrary to a good cybersecurity practice,” Wilton told Techradar.
These comments echo the previous warnings of technologists, cryptographers and private life defenders who were “deeply concerned” by the EU plan to weaken encryption.
The EU initiative is now launched by the EU Commission. They call it protective. It is a change of brand of cat control. New name. Same old propaganda. The European Commission’s objective is to “access the encryption data in a legal manner, to safeguard cybersecurity and …April 4, 2025
An increase in cyber attacks around the world has pushed government organizations, including FBI and CISA in the United States, to encourage citizens to switch to end-to-end services to fight these threats.
The European Commission itself has even previously recognized encryption as a necessary measure to protect the integrity of cyberspace.
This is probably the reason why a similar proposal to create a stolen door in encryption, the so-called cat control bill, failed to attract the necessary majority since 2022.
From now on, legislators promise to commit to finding the right balance between “allowing effective solutions and the test of future to facilitate the legitimate access to the application of the law to digital information, while respecting the right to privacy and the maintenance of high cybersecurity levels,” said the EU commissioner for internal affairs and migration, Magnus Brunner.
For Wilton, political decision -makers must never forget a simple fact: “Strong encryption is not the enemy of security – this is the starting point for that.”
