Brussels, 02/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the JHA Council finally managed to reach qualified majority in favour of a compromise text on the Commission's proposal for a directive on data retention. After the attacks in London on 7 July this year, the British EU Council presidency had made this legislative proposal a priority. Although the compromise is very different from the positions taken on 24 November by the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms (EUROPE 9076), the Presidency trusts that, by mid-December, an agreement will be found in first reading at the European Parliament.
Only Ireland, Slovenia and Slovakia did not vote in favour of the text as they felt that the proposal made by the Presidency was not effective or viable. The president of the Council, Charles Clarke told the press that he had managed to rally many of the indecisive votes on a flexible text that embodies the unity of the European Union in combating terrorism. Discussions first of all focused on the question of legal base. The States have indeed decided to continue to move forward on a proposal for a directive in co-decision (EUROPE 9032) but several of them called for a framework decision (third pillar), saying that it would correspond more closely to the repressive logic envisaged in this context. On the subject of the directive's objective, ministers reasserted that data retention must be applied to investigation, detection and prosecution for serious criminal offences. The Council leaves it up to States to define the notion of “serious offences” whereas MEPs hoped to limit this responsibility to a maximum for the States. The Council also decided to allow the States to choose for themselves which authorities should be authorised to have access to data. Regarding data retention, the ministers want telephone data to be kept by telecoms operators during a minimum of 6 months, or up to a maximum of 24 months. Exceptions are nonetheless foreseen for Ireland and Italy. Internet data retention was kept in the text. The Council agreed that operators should be compelled to keep all data (telephone and Internet) but an operational clause was included in the text allowing Member States that so wish not to include calls that do not get through. The telecoms industry was very reticent on this last point as it considers that the retention of unsuccessful calls leads to too large a volume of data storage. Despite such reluctance, the Council finally decided to bring Internet data into the scope of the directive mainly for telephone and e-mail. On the matter of costs, it was again the principle of national autonomy that was approved. The European Commission will have its word to say on this as the payment of possible compensation by States to telecoms companies will be subject to competition law. Finally, a European source pointed out that three solutions are to be envisaged if the Parliament rejects the text: - States will either abandon the directive, or put the framework decision back on the table, or seek to set up strengthened cooperation in this field.