Will the European Commission legislate on data retention? At the end of an exchange of views by EU Justice Ministers on Thursday 11 March, EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders highlighted his efforts to provide Member States with guidance on interpreting the case law of the Court of Justice (see EUROPE 12575/13).
“Our first task is to further explain what can be done about retention while fully respecting case law”, said the European Commissioner, recalling that there are flexibilities to organise data retention “in specific cases and on the basis of the case law of the Court”. “These rulings are binding decisions, we keep repeating that”, he continued, certainly referring to France, which seems to be challenging the latest Court ruling before its Council of State (see EUROPE 12671/22).
Portuguese Justice Minister Francisca van Dunem, whose country temporarily holds the EU Council Presidency, was more engaging. “What the Presidency would like to do is to work with the European Commission so that we can try to define a path to explore and put in place a regulatory instrument that will be common to all EU countries”, she told a press conference.
According to her, the discussion has revealed once again that a large majority of Member States are in favour of a common framework on data retention. “The underlying logic is that if we only used national rules, it would put us in a fragmented situation, which would weaken cooperation between law enforcement agencies”, she added.
In any case, a document of 8 February indicates that Estonia, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Slovakia are in favour of European legislation (see EUROPE 12675/17). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)