Strasbourg, 05/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - During his first speech since returning from the summer break (see related article), President Borrell recalled that Ireland casts doubt on the European legislation on the retention of telecommunication data adopted in February (EUROPE 9137). “Ireland has appealed against the directive on data retention which questions the delicate balance found between Council and Parliament”, Mr Borrell said. On 6 July, Dublin introduced action at the Court of Justice against the legal base for this directive (codecision), saying that what was needed was a framework decision under the third pillar (intergovernmental) given the repressive finality of the directive. Slovakia, which also voted against the text, did not wish to initiate court action but said it supported Ireland's approach. The two countries, however, are not opposed to the principle of data retention. In this field, Ireland has even more stringent legislation that compels companies to keep telephone and electronic data during a period of up to three years (two years according to the European directive).