Brussels, 24/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) has analysed the implications on the profession of the European Court of Justice decision last April, which invalidated the data retention directive. The CCBE's recommendations published on Wednesday 24 September highlight ways of improving communications protection between lawyers and their clients.
The data retention directive will allow internet service providers to retain customers' data for up to 24 months as part of the fight against terrorism. The Court deemed that this was disproportionate and could not be sufficiently justified. The decision has therefore opened up a legal loophole for member states transposing the text.
The CCBE argues that it “supports the conclusions of the CJUE, especially regarding the infringement of the principle of professional secrecy that may follow as a result of the implementation of the directive. The CCBE therefore calls upon its member bars and law societies to take appropriate action to ensure that national laws comply with the proportionality concern raised by the Court”.
Furthermore, based on the conclusions of the CCBE Comparative Study on Governmental Surveillance of Lawyers' Data in the Cloud, the CCBE invites the European Commission “to ensure that national regulatory regimes for the interception of communications should guarantee the inviolability of data and other evidence falling under the principle of professional secrecy”. There should be a harmonised, minimum level of protection for professional secrecy, regardless of the data being traffic data, other metadata or content data, and irrespective of which governmental body requires access to such given data, and whether the purpose is for national security or preventing crime. The CCBE also invites the European Parliament to undertake urgent action to establish “a European Digital Habeas Corpus - protecting fundamental rights in a digital age” including the protection of lawyer-client confidentiality. (SP)