The European Council of Ministers and European Parliament look
set to disagree over the practicalities of a proposed EU data
protection Directive which covers data retention. In order for the
Directive to become law, the two bodies must reach an agreement on
the text of the legislation.
The proposed Directive covers “the processing of personal data
and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications
sector.” The Council of Ministers is advocating a more hard-line
approach to data retention. Experts charged with advising the
Council have recommended greater powers for law enforcement
agencies to access sensitive data. However, just last week, the
Parliament voted to restrict access to information such as internet
traffic data.
The issue of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, has also
proved to be a sticking point in reaching agreement for a
Directive. The Parliament favours leaving decisions on spam to the
respective Member States, as at present. The majority of member
states wish to see a ban on spam, but the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg
and France prefer a more lax approach.
The questions of how to deal with internet cookies and short
message services (SMS) have also been addressed. Both bodies agreed
that unsolicited SMS should be banned and are attempting to meet a
compromise on the issue of cookies.
