EU states to discuss anti-terror data bill
The European Parliament will meet today to thrash out a proposed data law – a key anti-terror measure that Britain and other member states want adopted by the end of the year.
EU governments agreed earlier this month to require telecommunications companies to keep records of phone data for at least a year and email traffic for at least six months as part of the bloc’s anti-terror campaign.
Britain – the current EU president – advocates tough anti-terrorism laws and says data retention has already proven invaluable in the investigations into the July bombings in London.
But many European politicians have criticised the bill, citing privacy and cost concerns.
“It would be better to follow the US model, where you only freeze data when you have a suspect,” said Baroness Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP for London.
Alexander Alvaro, a German member of the assembly’s justice and home affairs committee who is charged with steering the bill through the legislature, will propose that the data retention period be just three months and no email data be kept, said Anders Rasmussen, adviser to Alvaro’s Liberal Democrats.
Alvaro also wants the EU governments to guarantee that the stored data will not be misused or hacked and that telecommunications companies will be reimbursed for extra costs connected with the retention.
Britain is against an EU-wide reimbursement plan. It wants the governments to be free to decide whether or not they will compensate companies. But any European telecommunications operator obliged by an illegal decision to retain data could seek substantial compensation, according to the legal service of the Council of EU Ministers, the bloc’s decision-making body representing EU governments.
Support from national parliaments and the European Parliament is needed to implement the measures. In September, the EU assembly unanimously rejected an even stricter version of the bill put forward by four countries.
Europe’s anti-terrorism drive is led by Britain, and Clarke is in a rush to adopt the directive by the end of the year because it is not considered a priority by Austria, which takes over the EU presidency in January.
Under the EU decision-making rules, the EU assembly is legally entitled to take part in shaping the law. Some members of the parliament have threatened to sue the EU governments at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg if they do not take the assembly’s amendments into account.
“We’re willing to engage in a process to improve and tighten up anti-terrorism safeguards, but we can’t do it under a regime of threats and bullying,” said Baroness Ludford.
The European Parliament has imposed a Wednesday deadline for introducing amendments to the bill. Centre-right deputies from the assembly’s biggest group, the European People’s Party, are likely to be less opposed to Britain’s version of the bill than the Liberal and centre-left groups.
A vote by the 732-member legislature is planned for December, Rasmussen said.
