Euro-RIP Act?

12.00.00am GMT Sun 3rd Dec 2000

Liberal Democrat Internet Spokesperson in the European Parliament, Diana Wallis, has warned that measures to tackle international cybercrime could lead to a Europe-wide version of the UK's controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act.

In a question to the European Commission last month, Diana Wallis MEP asked whether the UK RIP Act was in contravention of various European Union laws. The Commission have said that they are investigating the issue and suspect that the RIP Act may in fact be illegal. "This makes it all the more urgent that plans for a Europe-wide equivalent being looked at by the Council of Europe are modified," Diana Wallis MEP will say at a meeting of European Parliamentarians on Tuesday night in Brussels.

The Council of Europe, which represents the governments of the countries of the whole of Europe and is separate from the EU, has come forward with a draft convention on tackling cybercrime including built-in surveillance systems (such as email snooping). Diana commented: "As it stands at the moment, some measures contained in the convention could equate to email snooping powers similar to those in the UK's RIP Act.

"It's down to the European Commission to make sure that the various governments do not get together and agree this convention. The Commission has its own proposals on cybercrime and there is no need for such email surveillance measures to be included.

"I have asked the Commission a further question relating to the Council's proposals in the light of the RIP experience in the UK."

Diana Wallis MEP will chair a meeting of the European Parliamentarians' Internet Group (E-PING!) on Tuesday 5th December 18:30-20:00 in Brussels www.eping.org

The Council of Europe cybercrime convention can be downloaded from the following web site: http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/EN/projets/cybercrime24.doc

Written Question to the Commission

AUTHOR(S):Diana WALLIS

SUBJECT:Community-wide Interception systems

In response to my question E 2655/00, the Commission stated that it as not aware of any attempt to impose built-in interception systems on a Community-wide scale.

The draft Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Articles 20 (Real time collection of computer data) and 21 (Interception of Content Data) do imply the introduction of built-in surveillance systems on a Pan-European and potentially (due to US involvement in the drafting process) global scale. The implausibly broad definitions provided in Article 1 of the draft Convention make this threat even bigger. The European Commission itself in its non-paper of 2nd October 2000, raised numerous concerns regarding the current draft convention, indicating the seriousness of this proposal.

Document CJ-PD(2000)10 from the Council of Europe, which discusses protection of personal data says, in relation to Directive 95/46/EC that "one could argue that a general mandatory retention of traffic data is necessary for the investigation of criminal offences." As the draft Convention describes traffic data as "any computer data referring to a communication", it is difficult to see how this could be imposed without a comprehensive surveillance system.

Could the Commission tell me what it intends to do in order to ensure that the Convention does not lead to built-in surveillance systems?