7 December 2005
Home phone users will be casting a keen eye on European proposals to store details of all telephone calls – along with internet use – for between six months and a year in order to tighten the screw on terrorism.
The move, proposed by the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, will be voted on next week – but some EU member states, including the UK, want the data to be stored for longer and it is not certain that this compromise between their demands and the current three month retention period will be easily reached.
Martine Roure, who is co-ordinating the measures, told Reuters: "There will be a big majority for the compromise. The problem will be with the Council [member states]. We will wait for their response."
Britain, the current EU present, would like to see the data retained for as long as two years, its stance made all the firmer by the London bombings in July.
The European Parliament's compromise also echoes the European Commission's plan to reimburse telecoms providers for the prolonged storing of fixed-line, mobile and internet call data, and internet log-ons.
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