Rome stands firm in row over rules for mobile-phone taps

Date: 03/06/1999

By Simon Coss

AN argument is raging between EU governments over new rules to allow national police forces to tap the latest generation of satellite-based mobile telephones.

The dispute, which is delaying progress on an EU convention which would allow for greater cooperation between governments in criminal investigations, centres on the sensitive issue of just how much information one Union country should give another about ongoing police activities.

Rome argues that countries which have the 'ground-stations' for satellite telephone services on their territory should be automatically consulted whenever another member state wants to intercept calls made using the network in question. The only satellite-based mobile telephone service currently up and running in the EU - the Iridium network - has its ground station in Italy.

The French, supported by most other member states, disagree. Citing the Iridium example, Paris argues that if the person under surveillance is not on Italian soil, then there should be no need to inform Rome of ongoing operations. French diplomats argue that ground stations are simply technical centres which allow telephone operators to beam signals up to their satellites and could be based anywhere.

French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou repeated this argument at a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers last week. She did, however, concede that if a person under surveillance was in the country hosting a ground station, then the national authorities should be informed. The second satellite-based mobile telephone system to be launched in Europe - 'Global One' - will have its ground station in France.

But it is not just the Italians who are unhappy with the direction in which the phone-bugging debate is moving. The UK also argues that the current draft text being discussed by governments needs to be revised, albeit for different reasons.

London is concerned that, as it stands, the proposed convention makes no clear distinction between police surveillance and what is euphemistically termed 'intelligence gathering' - in other words, spying.

Under British law, the dividing line between these two activities is more blurred than in most other EU member states and London wants to ensure that its intelligence services are not compromised by the planned convention.

" We want it written in clear language that this will not apply to the intelligence services and at present the text does not give us the absolute clarity we need," explained one UK official.

But other EU governments seem less than keen to accept London's call for the convention to be re-drafted. In exasperation, the German presidency suggested at a meeting of top EU diplomats late last month that the problem could be resolved by granting the UK an opt-out from the phone-tapping rules.

However, Guigou said at last week's meeting that France would not go along with such a suggestion.