Telecoms ministers in the 15 countries of the European Union are
heading for a confrontation with the European Parliament over a new
data-protection law currently under construction.
Experts working for the 15 ministers have proposed that the
directive on data protection for telecoms should give more scope
for law enforcement authorities to access phone and Internet
traffic data.
The experts also want to limit commercial spammers by banning
unsolicited e-mail, according to an internal document to be
presented to ambassadors of the 15 member states by the Council of
Ministers working party on telecommunication.
Last week the European Parliament voted to make it more difficult
for authorities to gain access to people's traffic data. They also
agreed to remove e-mail from the list of communication technologies
that should be free of unsolicited direct marketing messages,
leaving the decision of whether to ban spam to individual member
states.
The new position on data retention is more hard-line than the one
telecom ministers agreed on at a Council of Ministers meeting in
Luxembourg in June. But certain member states - including the UK -
want more access to traffic data for longer.
Opinion among member states on the directive appears most divided
on the spam question, with 11 countries in favour of a ban on
unsolicited e-mail, and four - the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg and
France - preferring a less stringent "opt-out" approach.
Other issues raised in the new directive include how to deal with
cookies and short message service (SMS) text messages to mobile
phones. The European Parliament voted to ban the sending of
unsolicited commercial SMS messages, and to ban all cookies other
than those needed to operate a Web site.
The Council's telecom working group has changed the wording on the
cookies article, but this does not mark a significant move away
from the position adopted by the European Parliament. Nor did it
differ on SMS messaging, he added.
The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament must agree on
a text in order for this directive to become a law.
A lobbyist for Internet service providers (ISPs) said they opposed
stringent data-retention rules, but were in favour of an all-out
ban on spam.
"If the Council wins on data retention and the Parliament wins by
allowing spam, then the only loser will be the customer - twice
over," said Joe McNamee, EU affairs manager for EuroISPA, the
association of ISPs in Europe.