European Parliament Seen Approving Data Protection Rules
An EU proposal to extend data protection rules to police and judicial activities is expected to win strong endorsement from the European Parliament (EP) this week. The measure aims to plug a gap in privacy protection arising from the 1995 data protection directive’s inapplicability to matters involving law enforcement and judicial cooperation. MEPs’ enthusiasm for broader privacy guarantees, however, may not be mirrored by national govts., said to be dragging their feet in negotiations.
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On Tues., lawmakers will debate a report by French Socialist MEP Martine Roure, the official reporter on the issue. The document won unanimous backing last month from the Civil Liberties, Justice & Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee, and no amendments have been introduced in plenary session, Roure’s spokeswoman said.
There’s tension, however, between the EP and the Council of Ministers, which has the last word on the framework decision, Roure’s spokeswoman said. To persuade MEPs to support the directive on retention of communications traffic data in law enforcement matters, govts. made a “moral promise” to hasten work on corresponding data protection provisions, she said. That work is lagging because several govts. are unhappy with the EP’s proposal to make the regulation applicable to police matters within countries as well as cross-border cases, and because the Council is dissecting the draft article by article, the spokeswoman said. Resolution is unlikely this year, she said.
LIBE-approved amendments include: (1) Limiting use of and access to data to cases of strict necessity in preventing a threat to public security or a person, and to an extent proportional to the threat. (2) Deleting a provision granting access to authorities other than the “competent authorities” established by each member country. (3) Requiring that information on those other than suspects be used only for the specific purpose for which it was gathered, for a limited time and with adequate limitations on access to and transmission of the data. Other amendments approved give citizens the right to question the accuracy of some personal information in the hands of law enforcement bodies and to place their objections on the database; and impose criminal sanctions in cases of intentional misuse or gross negligence in handling the data.
Approval of the data retention directive “makes it even more urgent to establish a legal framework for data protection” in police and judicial matters, the European Data Protection Supervisor said in a Dec. opinion on the Commission proposal. The draft framework decision is a “considerable step forward,” Peter Hustinx wrote.
The issue has also been made more relevant by the European Court of Justice’s decision to annul the EU-U.S. agreement on exchange of air passenger data, MEPs said. The framework decision will affect future agreements between the EU and U.S., they said. Lawmakers will vote on Roure’s report Wed.