Brussels, 27/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday the European Parliament will give its opinion on second reading on the draft directive on privacy in electronic communications and the suspense over the outcome of the vote is likely to last until the results come out. Last month, the European Parliament Freedoms Committee reaffirmed the position taken by the EP in first reading, views that sharply diverge from the position taken by the Council in its common position. But the close vote by which a number of amendments were adopted in committee suggests that the vote outcome is far from assured. All the more so since the EPP-ED and the PES have tabled common amendments to the report by Marco Cappato (Lista Bonino, Italy) which echo the Council's position in many respects. For this reason, denouncing manoeuvring by the two political groups, the rapporteur called on 23 May for the MEPs to "vote following their conscience and not on a party basis", particularly in terms of data retention for citizens' communications.
In his recommendation of 18 April 2002, the Citizens Freedoms and Rights Committee reaffirmed the position taken by the EP in first reading, whereby clients' personal data should not be stored by an online supplier any longer than required for billing purposes. In other words, in terms of cookies (spy software that enables operators to discover their clients' surfing behaviour) the EP's Committee shared the Council's view that clients have to have the right to refuse to allow cookies, but feels that it would be enough to guarantee clients the access to clear information concerning the use made of the cookies, which amounts to opposing the Council's view, that customers must receive such information in advance. In terms of spam (unsolicited e-mail), the MEPs feel that it is up to Member States to decide whether customers have to give prior agreement to such mail (opt-in) or whether it is enough to have the option of asking to be removed from the receiver list (opt-out). However, in terms of commercial information sent by fax, text messages and automatic phone systems, the Committee feel that customers should only receive them if they've given prior authorization.
Since 18 April, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since on 22 May the EPP-ED and PES tabled amendments in favour of opt-in for both spam and cookies. As far as Marco Cappato is concerned, this is a manoeuvre by Ana Palacio Vallelersundi (EPP, Spain), the President of the Liberties Committee, in order to avoid an EP/Council conciliation committee and thereby allow the Spanish Presidency to successfully close the dossier. The rapporteur feels that the U-turn made by the EPP-ED and the PES by adopting an amendment allowing Member States to retain data "while guarantees for citizens' privacy are left to a reference to the general principles to the general principles of a community law and to the EU Treaty" is more serious. Marco Cappato therefore calls on MEPs to ignore the party line and vote according to their conscience. On 27 May he won the support of 40 Member States organisations that have formed a Global internet Liberty Campaign (http://www.gilc.org ).