In an open letter to the Parliament today, the groups argue
that, if approved, the Commission-drafted Directive would
irreversibly shift European civil liberties, affect European
consumer rights and obstruct the competitiveness of European
industry.
The plea follows an agreement reached among Ministers at the
Justice and Home Affairs Council on Friday. That agreement approves
amendments to a draft Directive on data retention that are
considered less draconian than proposals originally put forward by
the Council of Ministers; but it does not chime with amendments
made to the same Directive by the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home
Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (LIBE) less than two
weeks ago.
In that meeting, the LIBE committee stipulated that the data
should be retained for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 12
and insisted that if national law enforcement authorities needed to
have access to concrete data they would have to get judicial
authorisation.
MEPs also stated that telcos should be fully reimbursed by
Member States for all costs of retention, storage and transmission
of data, including investment and operational costs.
But the Council of Ministers’ amendments change the retention
period to a minumum of six months and a maximum of 24 months – with
the proviso that Member States may decide on a longer term if they
wish. (Ireland and Italy have maximum retention periods of three
and four years respectively, while Poland is considering a
retention period of 15 years.)
Ministers have also removed any requirement to reimburse telcos
and have limited access to the retention data to the investigation
of “serious crimes”.
The Council of Ministers and MEPs have been at loggerheads over
the controversial proposals since they were first mooted by UK,
Ireland, France and Sweden in April 2004.
Ministers have threatened to push through their own proposals if
the two institutions cannot reach agreement on the draft Directive
by the end of the year – so the pressure is on MEPs to approve the
draft when they meet in a plenary session of the Parliament on 12th
December.
According to reports, while MEPs have rejected the data
retention proposals on two previous occasions, the agreement
reached on Friday followed backroom talks with the Commission and
MEPs. Ministers therefore appear hopeful that the Parliament will
approve the amendments
Civil liberties groups are furious about the change of heart and
are calling on MEPs to reject the Directive.
Privacy International, EDRi, ISPs and consumer groups sent
today's open letter to MEPs expressing concern that the Directive
will involve the “indiscriminate collection and retention of data
on a wide range of Europeans' activities.”
According to the letter, the proposals are illegal. They
contravene the European Convention on Human Rights and will have a
chilling effect on the use of communications technology. In
addition, retaining the data will cost EU industry hundreds of
millions of Euros per year, harming global competitiveness.
The letter suggests that the Directive will not be the ultimate
solution; that further invasive laws will follow. It speculates on
a possible future requirement for anyone to identify themselves
before using communication tools.
“As the EU embarks on this unprecedented policy,” says the
letter, “we are facing a momentous decision as to whether we wish
to set in motion a chain of events that will lead to a surveillance
society.”
“The EU should follow the example of open and democratic
countries that have instead chosen to implement a preservation
regime where data is collected and retained only for a specific
investigation and then is accessed through court orders,” it
concludes.
