Today, on 20 October 2011, at the LAPSI meeting in Warsaw Ms Katarzyna Janicka-Pawlowska (of DG INFSOC of the European Commission) shed further light on possible options on the table as to the proposal to review the PSI Directive, which is expected to be presented to the European Council by the end of November.

Ms Janicka-Pawlowska described the likely procedure to be followed. Pending the current inter service consultation (within the EC) and assuming that the proposal will pass this stage, the EC will launch the proposal for the review of the Directive and accordingly, in January 2012, the legislative procedure will be initiated under Danish presidency of EU.

Subsequently, the co-decision procedure will start. If two readings in Parliament will be needed (and, of course, provided the proposal is adopted) the new Directive will enter into force three months after publication. Most likely this would then be expected in 2013 entailing a likely deadline for implementation in 2015.

Obviously, the proposal will also deal with transitory issues. Clearly, this sparked vivid debates and expectations are high as to the actual final text!