Council calls for police access to e-mails, SMS and phone calls

Justice and home affairs ministers are pushing for the
adoption of a new proposal obliging phone and internet service
providers to retain data on e-mails and calls to fight terrorism
more effectively. 

Under a draft framework decision discussed by the JHA Council on
2 December,  phone companies, mobile providers and internet
service providers are to store all
information on who EU citizens called or phoned and places
from which those interactions were made for a period of at
least one year. This controversial proposal
is designed to increase efficiency in the fight against
terrorism. It requires
telecommunication providers to keep data allowing authorities
to establish the source,
routing, destination, time,
date and duration of communications and the location of all
telecommunications but  does not include the recording
of the content of calls or e-mails.   

Judges and police officers have
requested access to telecoms traffic as electronic telecommunications services are
increasingly used to commit crimes.  After the
terrorist attacks in Madrid in March 2004, heads of state and
government pledged to adopt such new rules on data retention
by June 2005. 

Privacy campaigners and some MEPs consider that these measures
may be disproportionate to the threat they are supposed to
counteract. British MEP Sarah Ludford said the costs [of retaining
data for telecom providers] and the benefits for security are
being withheld from proper European Parliament scrutiny. 

During their Council meeting, justice and home affairs ministers
also adopted a series of documents in the fight against
terrorism. These include a revised action plan on combatting
terrorism, a strategy on terrorist financing, a report on
intelligence capacity, conclusions on prevention, preparedness and
response to terrorist attacks and an EU solidarity programme on the
consequences of terrorist threats and attacks. 

In addition, ministers agreed to circulate criminal records
between member states. Information on criminal records was proved
to be particularly necessary after the Fourniret case, a
paedophile convicted in France who was allowed to work with
children in Belgium and committed crimes in his adopted
country.

Read more with Euractiv

NATO hands over Bosnia peacekeeping duties to EU force

The deployment of some 7,000 EUFOR troops across Bosnia Herzegovina on 2 December marks the launch of the EU's largest-ever peacekeeping operation.