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EC goes after governments for not implementing data retention

By EDRi · June 5, 2013

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Kommission geht gegen Mitgliedsländer wegen Nicht-Umsetzung der Richtlinie zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung vor | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.11_Kommission_geht_gegen_Mitgliedslaender_wegen_Nicht-Umsetzung_der_Richtlinie_zur_Vorratsdatenspeicherung_vor?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130605]

On 30 May 2013, the European Court of Justice ordered Sweden to pay the
European Commission 3 million euro for the delay in transposing the 2006
EU data retention directive into its national law.

Sweden lost the first case in 2010 for infringing the deadline of
September 2007. The data retention provisions were implemented on 1 May
2013 by a new Swedish government. Yet, the court fined the Swedish
government for the delay in complying with the decision of 2010 and
ordered the payment of 3 million Euro as well as of the case costs.

Sweden is not the only country that has not yet implemented the
legislation. Belgium has received a warning from the Commission for not
fully transposing the directive. The transposition into the Czech
legislation was annulled by its Constitutional Court in
2011 and in Germany, the legislation was also stopped by the
Constitutional Court in 2010. The Commission’s case is pending.

This resolution comes at a moment when the data retention directive
continues to be opposed and controversial and many people are expecting
the data retention directive to be declared in breach of the EU
constitutional law. The Commission itself reached the conclusion in 2012
that the legislation needed to be reformed as it had failed to achieve
its goals.

The Austrian and the Irish high courts have referred cases to the
European Court of Justice on the directive in 2012 arguing it might
violate the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
For the time being, the Commission has postponed the regular review of
the directive which is expected to be finalised in 2014.

EU Anti-Terror Data Retention Directive Meeting Resistance In EU Courts
(1.06.2013)

EU Anti-Terror Data Retention Directive Meeting Resistance In EU Courts

Judgement of the Court (Fourth Chamber) in EC vs Kingdom of Sweden case
C‑270/11 (30.05.2013)
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=137828&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=112034

EDRigram: ENDitorial: Data retention – faint heart never won fair lady
(20.06.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.12/data-retention-courage-needed