The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament managed to agree on the regulation and directive on electronic evidence on Tuesday 29 November. This concludes 4 years of discussions during which the two parties were unable to reach an agreement.
The regulation should facilitate access to electronic evidence in criminal investigations. The directive requires service providers to appoint representatives in the EU to respond to such requests for e-evidence from judicial authorities.
In June, the French Presidency of the Council announced an agreement “on the key elements” of the electronic evidence package with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12981/14).
A few points remained to be clarified, such as the definition of the residence criterion for citizens for whom data is required.
The two institutions have also agreed on emergency cases, where service providers will no longer have 10 days to respond to an order to provide evidence, but 8 hours. The Parliament had originally hoped to retain the ten-day period, even in cases of emergency.
Finally, a solution was also found to effectively exchange electronic evidence on a decentralised digital platform. This will be specifically dedicated to electronic evidence and the Commission is responsible for developing it. The Commission must adopt an implementing regulation within 2 years to set up this platform. A transition period is foreseen in the text of the agreement, during which member countries will have to put in place means for the exchange, while guaranteeing the security of the data.
According to the agreement reached on 29 November, the Regulation on electronic evidence will only be applicable 3 years after its entry into force, which effectively gives the European Commission time to prepare and present its digital platform.
The Member States still have to approve this agreement reached by the Czech Presidency, before the European Parliament can, in turn, approve the text. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)