The European Union's Justice and Home Affairs Council adopted, on 21 February, a Directive on the retention of communication traffic data, amending accordingly Directive 2002/58/EC.
This Directive aims to harmonise obligations on traffic, location and identification data, which apply to all providers of publicly available electronic communications networks or services, for purposes of investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crimes, such as terrorism and organized crime.
These obligations apply to communication data both of legal and natural persons, and do not cover the content of such communications, including information consulted using an electronic communications network.
Providers are bound to retain communication data for periods from 6 to 24 months, being incumbent upon each Member-State to define the retention period which shall apply within these limits.
There were several topics which have not been addressed in the framework of this Directive, Member-States being thus left room to regulate several issues which have come up in the scope of this legislative procedure, such as: compensation due to providers for costs incurred with compliance with these obligations; scope of the concept of serious crime for the investigation which determines the retention obligation; the technology to be adopted to retain data; and the right of national authorities to access and use these data.
Member States must adopt the necessary measures to ensure the security of stored data, and must designate a public authority to be responsible for monitoring the application of these rules within each national territory.
Following the agreement reached in the Council meeting held on 1 December 2005 and the approval of the text of this statutory instrument by the European Parliament, on 14 December 2005, the formal adoption of the Directive has concluded this legislative procedure, which started with the proposal put forward by the European Commission last summer.
The Directive will now be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and Member States will have 18 months, following its entry into force, to implement new rules on this matter.
Further information:
- 2709th JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS Council meeting, Brussels 21 February 2006 (provisional version) http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/jha/88467.pdf
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Retention of communications traffic data https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1041635
- Proposal for a Directive on the retention of communications traffic data https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1043222
- EU - European Union https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?categoryId=66653
