Parliamentary questions
WRITTEN QUESTION E-3802/00
by Maurizio Turco (TDI) to the Council
(7 December 2000)

Subject: Transposal of Directive 97/66/EC

Article 15 of Directive 97/66/EC(1) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector stipulates that: "Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary for them to comply with this Directive not later than 24 October 1998. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, Member States shall bring into force the laws regulations and administrative provisions necessary for them to comply with Article 5 of this Directive not later than 24 October 2000".

Will the Council say:

- why provision was made for a derogation in respect of Article 5?

- what does it intend to do about the nine countries which have not yet taken any measures? What procedures will it initiate and when?
- has it checked whether the directive has been correctly transposed in the other countries?
- in the light of the failure of a majority of the Member States to transpose Directive 97/66/EC and given that the amendment of Directive 95/46/EC(2) is pending, is it not premature to proceed with amending this legislation via the proposal for a directive COM(2000) 385?

(1) OJ L 24, 30.1.1998, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.

Joint answer to Written Questions
E-3798/00 and E-3802/00
(8 March 2001)

Directive 97/66/EC was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 15 December 1997 following a meeting of the Conciliation Committee. The provision referred to in the Honourable Member's question was not contained in the common position adopted earlier by the Council on 12 September 1996.

This provision is one of the elements of the compromise reached on the matter of confidentiality of communications, which was one of the issues submitted to the Conciliation Committee. In order to make one of the European Parliament's amendments, which the Council was prepared to accept, compatible with the remainder of the text of the Directive, it proved necessary to add an explicit reference to recordings legally authorised by certain Member States in the course of limited business practice for the purpose of providing evidence of a commercial transaction or communication (Article 5(2)). As part of the compromise on this point, provision had consequently to be made for a further period to enable some Member States to include this possibility in their national legislation.

The Honourable Member's other questions fall within the scope of the powers attributed to the Commission by the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 211 thereof.