- Experts again warn against EU’s plans to weaken encryption
- On May 26, 2025, 89 signatories published a joint letter to call on the Europe Commission to “refresh its approach.”
- Protecteu, which was revealed in April last year, aims to find a legal way to create a back door in encrypted communication
The EU plan to create a legal back door in encrypted communication continues to raise concerns.
This time, 89 signatories of the tech industry warn -including civil society organizations, some of the best VPN and E email providers and cybersecurity experts -against the confidentiality and security hazards of the technology’s timetable on encryption included in the Proteceu strategy.
In a joint letter published on Monday, May 26, 2025, experts are now calling on the Europe Commission to “refresh its approach” and protect strong encryption practices.
The need for strong encryption
“While we recognize the importance of raising security efforts in moments of increased geopolitical instability, we are concerned about the framing of the technology’s roadmap,” experts wrote.
Encryption, encryption of data into an ulcerous form to prevent unwanted access, is the backbone of how services such as signal, whatsapp and proton mail work. Nevertheless, law enforcement has long claimed that this technology is an obstacle to criminal investigations.
As cyberattack events continue to rise around the world, even government agencies, such as the FBI and CISA in the United States, have begun to encourage citizens to switch to end-to-end encrypted services to fight these threats back.
The Europe Commission itself recognized earlier encryption as needed to also protect the cyberspace integrity.
This is why, for the signatories that include them like Proton, Surfshark, Tuta Mail, Mozilla and Element, along with leading cryptographers and digital rights groups, this technology is still a “key cyber security tool” that cannot be compromised.
“Undermining encryption weakens the very foundation of safe communication and systems, leaving individuals, businesses and public institutions more vulnerable to attacks,” they wrote.
🔒 𝐄𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.May 26, 2025
Protecteu comes as the first step in the EU Commission’s plan to strengthen the security of the European block in the coming years. Although we do not know much at the time of writing, we know that the strategy includes finding a technical way to create encryption back doors for software. That’s exactly what most people worry about the technical benches.
They wrote: “We are deeply concerned about the commission’s continued focus on identifying ways of weakening or bypassing encryption. This undermines its own security goals during the Protecteu strategy.”
The Europe Commission has already tried to weaken encryption with its proposal to scan the communication of all citizens to stop the spread of sexual material for children. The picture is considered chat control as chat control, the bill has not acceded to the necessary majority since 2022.
Along the way, the European Human Right’s court even issued “illegal pause creeping”, a severe blow to the supporters of scanning technologies on the client side to monitor encrypted communication.
Did you know?
While Messaging -Apps and E -Mail providers are set to be the main target of legislators, an EU expert group, explicitly recently referred to in VPN services as “key challenges” for the law enforcement authorities for the very first time, along with encrypted devices, apps and new communications operators.
Now, experts believe that what legislators are aiming to do during the Protecteu strategy will lead to the same security, human rights issues and accountability issues.
They then call for refreshing the technology’s timetable on encryption by also taking into account the concerns of the industry, not only those of law enforcement.
“Any future roadmap that strives to be credible and balanced must consider the feasibility of potential technological capabilities and their societal, technical and legal influence,” they conclude.
This is the second time digital rights, and tech experts have been assembled to encourage the Europe Commission not to undermine encryption with the new Protectu plan since April 1, 2025, the day the plan was first revealed. Also on that occasion, experts urged legislators to make them an active part of the process.
