Encryption debates, regulation thereof and the implications for the quantum-safe cryptography transition: the case of the EU

Encryption is a key building block of digital society in that it protects the security of the online environment and enables a meaningful exercise of civil liberties. This technology endows its users with power that does not always sit well with law enforcement and intelligence authorities that accordingly lose their control over information exchanges within society. The arguments, albeit yet to be substantiated, that this dynamics significantly impacts the fight against crime or other domestic and foreign threats, have spurred decades-long 'crypto-wars' that endure to this day. These crypto-tensions are compounded by the reality that at present no technological solutions are known that could grant security agencies with a so-called 'exceptional access' to communications and data without compromising cybersecurity and fundamental rights. This paper has two aims: first, it comprehensively explores encryption policy in the EU. Second, it discusses how these debates have been playing out in the face of quantum threat that requires to be mitigated with new methods of encryption.