On Tuesday 28 March, the European Commission confirmed to member states that it was likely that it would be presenting legislative options on ways to access electronic evidence, such as cloud computing, as part of criminal investigations, this June.
During a debate on the question of criminal justice in cyberspace, one source said that the Commission maintained that they needed practical solutions, for example, online platforms for exchanging this evidence, as well as contact points but that this would not be sufficient and a number of legislative elements needed to be included in this mix.
The commissioner responsible for this area, Vera Jourová, said that it was important to establish clear rules because it is no longer possible to depend on the goodwill of operators. The Whatsapp messaging system recently refused to provide the British courts with elements regarding the perpetrator of the Westminster attack on 22 March. This dependency on the goodwill of operators does not help strengthen Europeans’ security, explained the commissioner. She added that in June “we will come with different options and simpler rules” that will help collect electronic evidence and obtain swift and clear responses.
Commission still harbours misgivings regarding legislative action on encryption
On the question of encryption, however, the Commission again displayed misgivings about legislation on encryption, despite calls urging it to do so, from certain countries, particularly France and Germany, which were joined by the Netherlands and United Kingdom on Tuesday, according to one European source.
On this question, however, it is more difficult to develop a response, explained one European source, because the question of EU competency in this field comes into play and is sometimes related to intelligence when the information is connected to terrorism.
On Monday 27 March during the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, the French and German ministers for the interior again called for a legislative instrument in the area of electronic communication encryption (see EUROPE 11731).
The new French minister, Matthias Fekl, said that the way in which they cooperated with providers was crucial, and he mentioned the difficulty the services of law and order had when they clashed with uncooperative providers. His German counterpart, Thomas de Maizière, significantly highlighted the interoperability work being carried out between the different European information systems (SIS, VIS, Eurodac) that seek to enable the appropriate authorities to find all the relevant information about an individual in a single click. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)