Statewatch News Online, 13 July 2005 (27/05)

Full contents see: www.statewatch.org/news

1. EU: UK Presidency proposes that all ID cards have biometrics
2. UK-EU: Call for mandatory data retention of all telecommunications
3. EU policy “putsch”: Data protection handed to the DG for “law, order and security”
4. EU: UK Presidency programme on asylum and immigration
5. European Parliament rejects the EU-Canada agreement on transfer of personal data
6. EU: UK House of Lords report on: The Constitutional Treaty: Role of the ECJ

1. EU: UK Presidency proposes that all ID cards have biometrics – everyone to be fingerprinted. Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

“This proposal, with others, means that everyone living in the EU is going to be finger-printed and their details held on an EU-wide database. At a time of great tragedy it is all the more important that we act with care and do not bequeath to future generations a society where every movement and every communication is under surveillance. Whether a democratic way of life could survive in such a climate is doubtful.”

see: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/07eu-id-bio-plan.htm

2. UK-EU: Call for mandatory data retention of all telecommunications The draft proposal on the table is:

a. legally flawed and open to legal challenge
b. confused as to its scope – is it to deal with terrorism or crime in general?
c. requires service providers to retain data they have never collected before
d. the cost and technical capacity of service providers is unknown
e. the value in terms of tackling terrorism is highly questionable
f. it will store data on all the communications of everyone in the EU, suspect or not
g. there are no data protection provisions nor any external supervision

see: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/05eu-data-retention.htm

3. EU policy “putsch”: Data protection handed to the DG for “law, order and security”

– it is not “relevant” for citizens to know how and what information about them is exchanged,
see: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/06eu-data-prot.htm

4. EU: UK Presidency programme on asylum and immigration:
see: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/10703-05.pdf

5. European Parliament: MEPs reject the EU-Canada agreement on transfer of personal data:
see: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/ep-canada-pnr.pdf

6. EU: Report from the European Union Committee of the UK House of Lords on: The Constitutional Treaty: Role of the ECJ: Primacy of Union Law – Government Response and Correspondence: www.statewatch.org/news/2005/jul/eu-hol-ecj.pdf

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