German Parliament to Vote on Govt. Challenge to Data Storage Rules
Germany’s Parliament votes June 2 on whether the govt. should contest EU legislation requiring storage of Internet and telecom traffic data, European Digital Rights (EDRi) reported. The draft resolution would ask the German govt. to fight a data retention measure that took effect May 3. The challenge to the directive would come in the European Court of Justice, and would seek to delay its adoption it into national law until the court rules, EDRi said. The proposal has backing from individual members in all parties, it said. But Axel Spies -- a Washington lawyer who represents the German Competitive Carriers Assn. (VATM) - said passage is far from assured.
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The resolution questions the procedural basis for the data retention directive. National parliaments should have had more say, it says, noting that the directive required a unanimous vote by govts. “Because there was no hope to succeed in unanimity (which would have been required under the procedures) the Commission used a directive procedure based on specious arguments,” a Green party spokesman said. The Greens, who drafted the resolution, were quoted as saying: “This allowed a majority vote. European law has been violated by this procedure.”
Which procedure to follow was a major bone of contention in talks on the data retention directive. Now allegations that it is flawed legally are “coming back to life because many members of the opposition believe that the German Parliament was bypassed when the directive was adopted,” Spies said.
But a majority of the German Parliament might not be mustered in favor of the resolution. “Given that the ruling Social and Christian Democrats don’t seem to agree, it remains unlikely that this resolution will find enough votes,” Spies said. Moreover, he said, “burning questions” remain unanswered, such as who will pay for data retention, for which crimes traffic data may be held and who has access to the data. “We haven’t seen a full draft of the German law that implements the directive and addresses all these issues,” Spies said: “Given the strong interest of law enforcement to set up a data retention system, there’s obviously some pressure on the German government and the ruling Grand Coalition to get this done.”
Uproar over U.S. National Security Agency collection of call data led civil liberties groups to protest European data retention, EDRi said. One group, Netzwerk Neue Medien (NNM), said data retention rules could send Europe on the path toward similar surveillance.
The debate evoked memories of the former E. Germany’s hated secret police. Citing German foreign intelligence service spying on journalists reporting on the agency, govt. cell calls being intercepted in Greece and other examples, NNM said today’s data retention phenomena recall the Stasi’s heyday. Storage of communications traffic data will silence political opposition and endanger democracy, the group said.
“In the U.S., the government is under fire for spying on unsuspecting citizens in the fight against terrorism,” said NNM member Ralf Bendrath, an Internet and privacy researcher at Bremen U. who reported on the data retention resolution for EDRi. In Germany, the govt. wants to give the same right to private corporations for alleged minor offenses, he said: “This plan is beyond any legitimate law enforcement needs and will inflict heavy damage on consumers’ trust in the Internet.”
If the resolution fails, said groups and individuals, including former federal Interior Minister Gerhard Baum, they will challenge the law in Germany’s’s Constitutional Court, EDRi said. After recent judicial rulings against overly intrusive surveillance, retention and data-screening practices, “there is growing indication that the court will declare the directive illegal under the human rights provisions of the German Constitution,” EDRi said.
The directive would permit EU member countries to delay adoption of the retention requirements for Internet access, telephony and e-mail until March 15, 2009. Of the 25 member states, 16 are doing so.