The Political and Judicial Life of Metadata: Digital Rights Ireland and the Trail of the Data Retention Directive. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security No. 65, May 2014

This paper examines the challenges facing the EU regarding data retention, particularly in the aftermath of the judgment Digital Rights Ireland by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of April 2014, which found the Data Retention Directive 2002/58 to be invalid. It first offers a brief historical account of the Data Retention Directive and then moves to a detailed assessment of what the judgment means for determining the lawfulness of data retention from the perspective of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: what is wrong with the Data Retention Directive and how would it need to be changed to comply with the right to respect for privacy? The paper also looks at the responses to the judgment from the European institutions and elsewhere, and presents a set of policy suggestions to the European institutions on the way forward. It is argued here that one of the main issues underlying the Digital Rights Ireland judgment has been the role of fundamental rights in the EU legal order, and in particular the extent to which the retention of metadata for law enforcement purposes is consistent with EU citizens’ right to respect for privacy and to data protection. The paper offers three main recommendations to EU policy-makers: first, to give priority to a full and independent evaluation of the value of the data retention directive; second, to assess the judgment’s implications for other large EU information systems and proposals that provide for the mass collection of metadata from innocent persons, in the EU; and third, to adopt without delay the proposal for Directive COM(2012)10 dealing with data protection in the fields of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

Schengen Anniversary - EPC Special Collection

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement, the EPC has put together a special collection of EPC papers on Schengen's developments between 2011 and 2014. Signed by France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 14 June 1985, the Schengen Agreement has paved the way for the development of one of the EU’s most symbolic achievements: the freedom of movement without internal border checks. Although the agreement has been one of the EU’s biggest successes, the Schengen story has not always been a ‘long fleuve tranquille’, particularly in recent years. This year’s anniversary offers the opportunity to revisit the latest developments in the Schengen cooperation and look back at the accomplishments of this landmark agreement.