MEPs tighten up proposed EU data retention law

3.38.05pm GMT Thu 24th Nov 2005

Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford has welcomed the overwhelming vote by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties committee in favour of amending an EU proposal for storage of phone, email and internet records - known as data retention - for law enforcement purposes. She said:

"MEPs insist on tight safeguards in the proposed measure so that it is targeted on serious crimes, minimises invasions of privacy and abuses, and creates as little burden as possible for the European telecoms industry."

"This offers a reasonable basis for agreement with the Council. If they genuinely want an investigation tool as opposed to an excuse for fishing expeditions, 'profiling' or generalised surveillance, then they ought to accept what we are offering."

Note

Amendments made by MEPs today include -

• limit of 12 months on storage

• smaller range on information kept

• only law enforcement bodies can have access

• only to investigate or prosecute serious crimes on a case by case basis

• judge's warrant needed for access

• criminal sanctions for breach of tough data protection provisions

• costs to telecoms and internet companies must be reimbursed

• review after 2 years on basis of statistics on usage