On July 9, the European Parliament voted on a law to extend mass scanning of private messages for child abuse material. A majority, 314 MEPs, voted to kill it. That was 47 votes short of the threshold second-reading rules require, so the scanning regime survives regardless.
Parliament did claw something back the same day: a separate vote walled off end-to-end encrypted apps from the scheme entirely. The amended text now goes to the Council, which has three months to accept or reject it.
Policy & Regulation
Chat Control fails to die, but encrypted apps win an exemption
The vote extends what campaigners call Chat Control, a temporary regime letting platforms scan private messages for child sexual abuse material, through 2028. A clear majority of MEPs present opposed the extension.
Under second-reading rules, killing a Council position needs an absolute majority of the full Parliament, 361 votes, not just a majority of those in the room. The rejection fell 47 votes short.
The encryption carve-out is the crack in an otherwise grim outcome. Signal and WhatsApp-style services are now excluded from scanning obligations, a concession privacy advocates had been pushing for since the file's first reading.
(Euronews) (The Register)
Parliament backs digital euro talks, 416 to 169
The same July 9 sitting saw Parliament vote to open trilogue negotiations with the Council on a digital euro, the ECB-backed digital payment instrument meant to cut reliance on Visa, Mastercard, and non-EU payment rails. Support was decisive: 416 in favour, 169 against, 22 abstentions.
Parliament's negotiating position calls for the euro to be free to use, available offline, and capped per individual holder, with basic account services free of charge.
Trilogue talks start after the summer break. Co-legislators are aiming to close the file by the end of 2026, the same deadline hanging over the DMA cloud gatekeeper case and the AI Omnibus.
(MLex) (Sofia Globe)
Ireland's presidency inherits the AI Act's tightest deadline
Taoiseach Micheál Martin presented the Irish presidency's priorities to Parliament in Strasbourg on July 7. MEPs were broadly supportive of the programme, built around competitiveness, values, and security.
Finalising the AI Omnibus is the most time-sensitive item Ireland inherited on July 1. The Council approved the text on June 29 and Parliament passed it June 16, but neither step counts until the regulation is published in the Official Journal, and the original August 2 deadlines still apply on paper until it is.
(European Parliament) (Tech Policy Press)
Capital & Investment
Nscale closes $900 million to build AI data centres across three continents
The UK-based AI infrastructure company closed a revolving credit facility on July 7, syndicated across J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and nine other banks. The facility funds data-centre build-out across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
It adds to the roughly $4 billion Nscale has raised since March, including a $2 billion Series C backed by Nvidia and Dell.
Oxylabs takes its first outside money and becomes Lithuania's newest unicorn
The Vilnius-based data infrastructure company secured €113.6 million from Warburg Pincus on July 9, valuing it at €3.1 billion. Oxylabs bootstrapped for a decade before taking this round, its first external investment since founding in 2015.
The deal makes Oxylabs the second bootstrapped unicorn to emerge from Lithuanian tech group Tesonet, after Nord Security. Baltic venture funding has been climbing steadily, and a decade-old bootstrapped company choosing to raise now says more about deal terms improving than about founders running short on cash.
(EU-Startups) (Warburg Pincus)
Proxima Fusion raises €411 million, the largest fusion round in Europe
The Munich-based fusion startup closed its Series A on July 6, led by XTX Ventures with East X Ventures, RWE, Google, and the EIC Fund participating. The round outpaces any comparable US fusion raise to date.
RWE is not a financial investor here; it is a utility betting its own money on stellarator-based fusion as a near-term technology, not a research curiosity.
(Tech.eu)
One to Watch
Whether the EIC's first defence equity cheques go somewhere unexpected
On July 1, the European Innovation Council opened its first-ever direct equity call for defence companies: €100 million, with individual investments of €10 million to €30 million, applications open until October 28.
It is the first time an EU funding programme has taken equity in defence firms rather than handing out grants, a shift from rule-writer to shareholder.
The interesting question is not whether the money moves. It is where. Watch whether the EIC backs the same handful of well-capitalised primes already raising from Sequoia and Blackstone, or whether it reaches the smaller, less-connected defence startups that private capital keeps passing over.