GSM operators welcome rejection of EU data retention rules

BRUSSELS – GSM Europe, the umbrella group representing 148 mobile operators, on Thursday welcomed a vote this week by the European Parliament to reject planned data retention rules for telecommunications service operators.

In a statement issued Thursday, the association’s chairman, Kaisu Karvala, said that the vote sent a “clear signal to EU governments that this issue needs to be carefully examined before any legislative measures are initiated.”

On Tuesday the European Parliament (EP) voted against a proposal from the U.K., France, Sweden and Ireland that would require fixed and mobile phone operators and Internet service providers to store a wide range of call data for up to three years.

The rules were drafted in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. and the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 as part of moves to fight international terrorism.

But industry groups have warned that the rules, if adopted, could “destroy” telecoms operators because of the cost and difficulty of collecting and storing the data required.

GSM Europe’s Karvela said that the proposed rules could “hamper the development of the European Information Society” and was not in the spirit of the E.U.’s recently launched i2010 initiative, which aims to boost the digital economy and new communications services.

The German Free Democrat member of the European Parliament (MEP) who drafted the EP’s view on the rules, Alexander Alvaro, said that they were “disproportionate and ineffective.” Given the volume of telephone and Internet data to be retained, an appropriate analysis of the data to effectively combat terrorism does not appear to be technically possible, Alvaro said on Tuesday, adding that citizen’s rights needed to be better protected.

The MEP said that if the E.U.’s Council of Ministers proceeded with plans to implement the rules as they currently stand he would ask the European Court of Justice to strike the legislation down.

Alvaro said that he hoped a forthcoming proposal on the same subject from the European Commission, which is responsible for the initial draft of E.U. legislation, would address the concerns of Parliament and industry.

E.U. Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said on June 1 that the Commission was planning to table an alternative proposal before the summer that would significantly reduce the burden of the rules on operators. She said that the Commission was considering requiring firms to store data for a maximum of one year, compared to a possible three years as requested by the four member states. She also promised to assess the rules’ impact on industry before presenting her proposal.

The Commission proposal would require the European Parliament’s approval.

But Nicolas Schmit, the deputy foreign minister of Luxembourg, which is chairing E.U. meetings until the end of June, said on Tuesday in the Parliament that the member states were planning to implement the rules on the basis of the four member states’ proposal once they agreed on the scope and duration of the data retention requirements.

E.U. officials said that the member states are waiting to see how close the Commission’s proposal is to their thinking before reaching a final agreement. The officials also said that they could work on the basis of the Commission’s draft if a compromise between the two versions is possible.