The two texts on electronic evidence in the EU are about to be published. On Wednesday 25 January, the representatives of the Member States to the EU approved the provisional agreement between the Czech Presidency of the EU Council and the European Parliament on the Regulation and Directive on cross-border access to electronic evidence (see EUROPE 13074/15).
It took two years for Parliament and the EU Council to agree. Even after the 30 November agreement, discussions at technical level were still needed, but the path is now clear for Parliament to adopt the text in turn.
“The new rules will give judges and prosecutors access to the necessary evidence, regardless of where it is stored, and before it disappears”, said Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer.
The Regulation creates a European production and preservation order that can be used by judicial authorities. It concerns identification, traffic and content data. However, the latter two types of data may not be required for crimes punishable by less than three years’ imprisonment, except for offences related to cybercrime, child pornography, counterfeiting or terrorism.
As for the Directive, it allows for the designation of a legal representative or department at service providers to receive and process orders for the production of evidence.
See the final compromise on the Regulation: https://aeur.eu/f/52e
And on the Directive: https://aeur.eu/f/52f (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)