Data Retention Directive adopted by JHA Council

By EDRi · March 1, 2006

The Ministers at the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council, following an
agreement reached by the Council on 1 and 2 December 2005, adopted the Data
Retention Directive on 21 February 2006.

The Directive was adopted by the European Parliament on 14 December 2006
after the Council threatened to push for its own much tougher draft, as a
framework decision, if the MEPs were unable to agree on the compromise for a
directive.

The Irish and Slovakian representatives in the Council voted against the
Directive, considering that more stringent measures were necessary. They
argued the Council should have pushed for a framework decision, instead of
negotiating with the Parliament over a directive. However, the majority
disagreed with this opinion and therefore the Directive was adopted. The
Irish Government said they were considering taking the matter to the
European Court of Justice.

At the last minute, the Dutch parliament tried to prevent agreement on the
Directive. The Lower Chamber of the Dutch Parliament adopted a motion on 20
February 2005 stating that the directive “does not comply to the
conditions of a maximum retention period of 1 year, of an adequate
arrangement for access to the stored data and to a compensation arrangement
that suffices for a level playing field” and therefore “requests that the
Government, during the JHA Council of 21 February 2006, does not agree to
this Directive and makes a serious effort to start meaningful deliberations
about the conditions.” However, Minister Donner of Justice ignored this
motion and did not object in the JHA Council.

At the same time, Finland plans to use the maximum time delay before
introducing internet data retention.

Data Retention Directive endorsed by Ministers (23.02.2006)
http://www.out-law.com/page-6666

Text of the Data Retention Directive adopted by the JHA Council (21.02.2006)
http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/05/st03/st03677.en05.pdf

Lower House: Donner may not agree to data retention (onli in Dutch,
21.02.2006)
http://www.webwereld.nl/articles/39886/bewaarplicht

Minutes of the parliamentary debate (only in Dutch, 21.02.2006)
http://www.tweedekamer.nl/images/TK051-0506_tcm71-93693.doc

Finland: Internet data retention to start in 2009? ( 27.02.2006)
http://e.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=48305

EDRI-gram : Final push for single EP vote on data retention (5.12.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.24/EPvote