Romania Has Two Months To Transpose Data Retention Directive Into National Law

Since the judgments of their Constitutional Courts, which annulled the respective national laws that transposed the Data Retention Directive, the two EU member states have not said how and when they will adopt the new norms, said the Commission.

The directive obliges telephone companies and Internet service providers to store telecommunications traffic and location data for law enforcement purposes.

"Germany and Romania's ongoing delay in transposing the directive into national law is likely to have a negative effect on the internal market for electronic communications and on the ability of police and justice authorities to detect, investigate and prosecute serious crime," said the EC.

Germany and Romania notified the Commission on January 2008 and November 2008, respectively, regarding measures to transpose the EU directive on data retention into their national legislation.

Yet, on 2 March 2010 the German Constitutional Court annulled certain provisions of the Telecommunications Surveillance Law of 31 December 2007. A similar decision was made on 8 October 2009 by the Romanian Constitutional Court who declared Law 298/2008 unconstitutional, the Commission said in a reasoned opinion.

"The German and the Romanian courts did not rule that the Data Retention Directive as such was unconstitutional. Yet, though none of the conclusions of both Constitutional Courts' judgments preclude full transposition of the directive in a way that complies with the German and Romanian constitutions, no new legislation has been adopted yet, according to the EC.

The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Germany and Romania on June 17, 2011. Germany informed the Commission on August 16 that the Ministry of Justice developed a proposal for implementing the directive. Romania said negotiations on a new law were held at inter-ministerial level.

In the absence of draft laws which would fully transpose the directive and detailed timetables for their adoption, the Commission decided to send reasoned opinions to Germany and Romania, said the EC.

The Data Retention Directive was adopted in 2006 and should have been transposed into national law by 15 September 2007, with the option of postponing the retention of communications data relating to Internet access, Internet telephoning and Internet e-mail until 15 March 2009.

In April 2011, the Commission adopted an evaluation report analyzing how member states transposed the directive and assessing the use of retained data and the impact on operators and consumers, said the EC.

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