UK Presidency to revive data storage plans[fr][de] 

According to the Guardian newspaper, the UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke will urge fellow ministers of the interior to support his proposal at a special summit of EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers on July 13. Under the plan, providers of communication services would have to store data for a minimum period of twelve months and up to three years. 

According to the report by the Parliament, the data would, if printed out on paper, accumulate to a stack of files four million kilometres high. The report goes on to say that one search, using existing technology, would take 50 to 100 years, which would make it useless for investigations against terrorists. According to the report adopted unanimously by the Parliament, big companies would have to spend around 180 million euro each to set the system up, and an additional 50 million euro a year to run it. This would create market distortions that would be to the disadvantage in particular of smaller companies. 

According to the Guardian, the proposal will be brought forward jointly by the UK and France, two of the four countries that were already behind the proposal rejected by the Parliament in June 2005. Mr. Clarke is expected to present the plans when he addresses the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 13 July 2005.