The French Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, was heard by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Monday 31 January. He presented the priorities of the current French Presidency of the EU Council in the field of justice.
He began by stressing the need, in his view, to make progress on the ‘electronic evidence’ legislative package, which is currently stuck in negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council (trilogues) (see EUROPE 12863/6 and 12851/2).
This package “will make it possible to make progress in the identification of perpetrators and the materialisation of their offences. [...] It is a question of Europe’s sovereignty, of its ability to set its own rules”, the minister told MEPs. He also considered that the proposal for a regulation currently under discussion provided the necessary guarantees on the respect of individual freedoms.
There are concerns within the Parliament about the disclosure of certain data. The rapporteur on the text, Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany), said the European Parliament was not prepared to get a deal at any price. The Commission has proposed different rules for communication between Member States’ authorities and service providers, depending on whether the data concerned is content, transactional, access or identification data.
Ms Sippel, on the other hand, considers that there is no need to differentiate between them. “Traffic data is no less sensitive than content data. We will not accept any differentiation between them”, she said.
Mr Dupond-Moretti also highlighted the rule of law in his presentation, and indicated that he would propose a debate on this subject at the Justice Council on 4 March. Many MEPs have asked him about this issue, although it is being dealt with by the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, in the General Affairs Council (see other news).
The French Minister specified the French intentions to strengthen the fundamental values in the EU. For him, the fight against antisemitism must first be continued. “I propose that the EU Council adopt conclusions that support the Commission’s proposal made in October”, he said (see EUROPE 12805/26).
He also wants to go further on criminalising online hate speech. Here, too, he wanted to move towards the adoption in the EU Council of the proposal to extend the European crime list (see EUROPE 12850/16).
Finally, the Minister mentioned the importance for France of advancing the revision of the Environmental Protection Directive through criminal law. “We hope to see progress in the EU Council towards the adoption of at least a partial ‘general approach’ in June”, he said.
On the challenges of the digital transition, the “modernisation of justice” package presented in December (see EUROPE 12844/12) is also among the French priorities. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)