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Deutsch: Rumänische NGOs fordern einen Stopp der Vorratsdatenspeicherung in Eu...

In an open letter sent to the European institutions, several Romanian NGOs, including EDRi-member APTI Romania, demanded stopping data retention in Europe, following the decisions of the Constitutional Courts in Romania and Germany.

The letter asks the European Commission to take advantage of the evaluation process of the Data Retention Directive in order to correct the mistakes of the past and to nullify the Directive, as it has been shown there are difficulties in obtaining the relevant data regarding the efficiency of such a system. The Commission has also received clear examples of abuses and adverse effects on privacy.

The signatories underline that a Romanian implementation of the EU Directive on data retention is impossible, after the 2009 decision of the Constitutional Court that considered that the fundamental scope of the law (and thus of the Directive) - legal obligation to continuously and indiscriminately store telecommunication data- is unconstitutional.

They are also asking the competent European institutions to take note of the irreconcilable conflict between the telecommunication data retention and the human right to privacy and to act accordingly to respect the principles in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The text is meant to remind, support and respect the decision of the Romanian Constitutional Court and not to put an EU Member State in a position that will breach its constitutional texts: "The decision stipulates that keeping all traffic data for all Romanian citizens is a measure that breaches human rights, as foreseen by the Romanian Constitution. Thus 'the legal obligation with a continuous character, generally applicable, of data retention (...) harms in an unacceptable way the exercise of the right to privacy or the freedom of expression.'"

Telecommunication data retention must be stopped in Europe (26.01.2011)
http://www.apti.ro/pastrare-date-trafic.pdf

Decision of the Romanian Constitutional Court (8.10.2009)
http://www.legi-internet.ro/english/jurisprudenta-it-romania/decizii-i...

EDRi-gram: Data Retention Directive evaluation: expect the unexpected? (15.12.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.24/evaluation-data-retention-dire...