Data retention proposals must not be costly mass surveillance

5.41.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 11th Jul 2005

Regarding the emergency meeting of EU justice and interior ministers called by Charles Clarke for Wednesday to discuss anti-terrorism measures and especially retention of telecoms traffic data, Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP said:

"The justification for a costly blanket obligation to keep logs of everybody's calls, text messages, emails and websites visited without firm safeguards on use and access is no firmer today than it was before last Thursday. It would be absurd to have mass surveillance while terrorists using pay-as-you-go phones or internet cafes would escape detection."

"That is why many Member States as well as the European Parliament are hesitant about overturning the general rule in EU law requires deletion of the data after a few months once bills are settled, and prohibits using data for purposes for which it was not collected."

"There needs in a context of transparent decision-making involving MPs and MEPs, not secretive Ministerial decisions which excludes elected parliamentarians, including from knowledge of the full cost-benefit arguments."

"I look forward to a much tighter proposal from the European Commission, one which is more targeted, proportionate and realistic than the one championed by the UK that MEPs rejected last month."