Justice ministers bid to keep data storage plan alive

By David Cronin

Date: 26/05/05

EU justice ministers will attempt next week to salvage a plan for storing details of all phone and email communications after their own lawyers deemed the scheme illegal.

Following the 11 March 2004 train bombings in Madrid, the ministers pledged to introduce a data retention system by June this year to help law enforcement authorities track communications during probes into terrorism and other crimes.

But a recommendation signed by the UK, France, Sweden and Ireland was declared incompatible with the EU treaties by the legal services of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. Whereas the four governments envisaged the scheme as a justice and home affairs measure, the lawyers found that telecoms must be regulated under internal market provisions. If the measure were to be an internal market one, it would have to be based on a proposal from the Commission.

Yesterday (25 May), Franco Frattini and Viviane Reding, the commissioners responsible for justice and information society issues, agreed on the main points of such a proposal.

Nevertheless, France, the UK and Ireland, supported by Germany, insist that the scheme should still be introduced under the legal base they originally foresaw. But several other member states have argued that the lawyers' concerns should be heeded.

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee is to adopt a report highly critical of the data retention scheme today (26 May).

The report suggests that forcing telecoms firms to retain their 'traffic' data could prove ineffectual as terrorists will "easily" circumvent the scheme by using 'front men' to buy mobile phone cards, using public telephones or internet service providers based outside Europe.

It points out that the scheme could require firms to invest 180 million euro a year in new equipment, with annual operating costs of up to 50m €.

Article reports on a dispute whether legislation on an EU-wide data retention scheme was to fall under the responsibility of the Justice and Home Affairs Council or its counterpart for the Internal Market. The legal services of the European Commission had found that this was a telecommunications issue, to be dealt with according to the Community method, which gives the Commission the exclusive right of legislative initiative. They therefore declared a proposal brought forward by four Member States incompatible with EU law. The plan was to store details of all phone and email communications to help law enforcement authorities track communications during probes into terrorism and other crimes.