Posted: 28th Sep, 2005 By: MarkJ
European MP's (MEP's) have rejected the UK's more aggressive Internet/Telecoms data retention proposals in favour of a less controversial alternative from the European Commission:
The Draft Framework Agreement was put forward by the UK, with the backing of France, Sweden and Ireland, in the wake of the Madrid bombings. It was argued that the powers the bill contained were needed to help law enforcement agencies protect Europe from terrorism.
However, by proposing the legislation as a Draft Framework Agreement rather than asking the Commission to draft a Directive, the four countries were effectively bypassing the parliament, something which put MEPs' noses out of joint.
A statement on the parliament's website reads: "MEPs welcomed instead an alternative proposal on data retention launched by the Commission last week, in which the Parliament will have codecision power to ensure that MEPs' demands are respected."While the commissions proposals may not require data to be stored for truly excessive lengths and compensates providers for their storage costs, it's still a long way from complete approval.
Further safeguards are being requested to help protect individual privacy. More @
The Register.