Clarke defends data laws

Date: 15/12/05

The UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke has described allegations that he is seeking to turn the EU into a police state as absurd.

Clarke took issue with claims by some MEPs this week that efforts to retain details of all phone, fax and email communications in the Union smacked of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. "I am not so much offended by the use of the words 'police state' or drawing comparisons to Hitler and Stalin," he said. "I just regard them as absurd. It is ridiculous to suggest that this is outside the rule of law."

The European Parliament yesterday (14 December) approved a deal on data retention by 378 votes to 197. The accord had been reached beforehand between the assembly's two largest political groups, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. Data on telephone calls, text messages and internet connections will be retained for a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years.

Some MEPs have argued that full-scale data retention is not necessary because a more focused means of preserving information on suspects is already provided for by the 2001 Cybercrime Convention. This convention from the Council of Europe allows for data to be preserved for specific purposes if access to it is sought by law enforcement authorities.

Yet Clarke said he felt that using this facility of 'data preservation' might not be sufficient to fight terrorism and organised crime. "Data retention is the right way to go," he insisted.

Although the European People's Party and the Socialist groups in the Parliament supported the data retention deal, it was opposed by the Greens, the European United Left and some Liberals.

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Legislative Observatory: COM (2005)438 http://europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5275032

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