28 March 2012
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Surveillance
of telecommunications in the EU
Narrow vote in European Parliament on data retention
On Tuesday 16 April there was an informal "trilogue" meeting (secret meetings of the Council, Commission and parliamentary rapporteurs used by the Council to achieve its objectives). But the day before the Rapporteur, a well-informed Brussels newsheet, reported that an amendment to the parliament's report tabled by Ana Palacio (conservative EPP group and chair of the Committee on Citizens Freedoms and rights) was commented on favourably by the coordinator of the EPP group in the Committee and by Michael Cashman (UK, Labour, PSE group). Despite the convention that amendments to Commission proposals agreed unanimously by the parliament at its first reading should not be amended again - Palacio, a Spanish conservative MEP and chair of the Committee put forward an amendment accepting the Council's position. In doing so Ana Palacio was trying to give direct support to the increasingly rightwing Spanish Presidency of the EU.
The vote in the Committee took place on an amendment to the Council's "common position" put forward by the rapporteur Marco Cappato (Radical Party, Italy) to maintain the parliament's first reading position. As this was passed the Palacio amendment fell. The 25-19 vote showed the PSE (social democratic Socialist group), the GUE (United Left), the Green/EFA group and the ELDR (Liberal group) against data retention and the EPP (conservative group), UEN (Europe of Nations group) and EDD (Europe of Democracies and Diversities group) in favour of data retention. The report will now go the parliament's plenary session on 15 May where it needs to get 314 votes (out of a total of 626 MEPs) to be adopted as the 2nd reading position. It is expected that the EPP (the largest party with 233 MEPs) will again attempt to introduce an amendment to the critical Article 15.1 and there is no certainty that a majority can be put together to oppose data retention. The combined voting strength of the PSE, ELDR, Green/EFA and GUE is 321 - but this assumes that none of the PSE MEPs break ranks under pressure from their governments.
The amendments
The Council's common position on data retention in Article 15.1
reads as follows:
1. Member States may adopt legislative measures to restrict the scope of the rights and obligations provided for in Article 5, Article 6, Article 8(1)(2)(3) and (4), and Article 9 of this Directive when such restriction constitutes a necessary measure to safeguard national security, (i.e. State security) defence, public security or the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences or of unauthorised use of the electronic communications system, as referred to in Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC. To this end Member States may inter alia provide for the retention of data for a limited period justified on the grounds laid down in this paragraph, in accordance with the general principles of Community law.
The EPP/Ana Palacio amendment to the above read as follows:
1. Member States
may adopt legislative measures to restrict the scope of the rights
and obligations provided for in Article 5, Article 6, Article
8(1)(2)(3) and (4), and Article 9 of this Directive when such
restriction constitutes a necessary measure to safeguard national
security, (i.e. State security) defence, public security or the
prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal
offences or of unauthorised use of the electronic communications
system, as referred to in Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC.
To this end Member States may inter alia provide for the retention
of data for a limited period justified on the grounds laid down
in this paragraph, in accordance with the general principles
of Community law, in particular the European Convention on
Human Rights and pursuant to rulings issued by the European Court
of Human Rights.
The Amendment by Marco Cappato (rapporteur) to maintain the 1st
reading position read as follows:
1. Member States
may adopt legislative measures to restrict the scope of the rights
and obligations provided for in Article 5, Article 6, Article
8(1)(2)(3) and (4), and Article 9 of this Directive when such
restriction constitutes a necessary, appropriate, proportionate
and temporary measure within a democratic society to safeguard
national security, defence, public security, the prevention,
investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences
or of unauthorised use of the electronic communication system,
as referred to in Article 13(1) of Directive 95/46/EC. These
measures shall be entirely exceptional and based on a specific
law which is comprehensible to the general public, and shall
be authorised by the judicial or other competent authorities
on a case-by-case basis. Under the European Convention on Human
Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and pursuant
to rulings issued by the European Court of Human Rights, any
form of widespread general or exploratory electronic surveillance
is prohibited.
Comment: the Council's position is intended to deflect criticism
by arguing that the proposal is non-binding and therefore up
to each member state to enact. This ignores the evidence on the
record that the Council's plans assume that every EU state allows
the retention of data and allows access to this for the "law
enforcement agencies".
For more background
please see: S.O.S.Europe
Story
filed 19.4.02
Statewatch
News online
| Join Statewatch news e-mail list | If you use this site regularly, you are encouraged
to make a donation
to Statewatch to support future research | Subscribe
to Statewatch online
just £10 a year
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.
Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.