[pp.int.general] data retention in Dutch parliament

[David Golden]

Reinier Bakels wrote:

> As you know, the Irish have submitted a case to the ECJ because they
> believe the  Data Retention Directive has no proper ground
> in the EU treaties but the Dutch > minister(/professor) said that this
is irrelevant for NL,

Just to note, there are two "Irish vs. data retention" cases, sometimes
confused:

1. Irish Government:

The Irish Government challenged the Data Retention directive... but note
that their motivations may not be particularly benevolent.  It is
primarily stated to be about a procedural issue  with how the directive
was passed.  I imagine the Dutch minister might be aware "Ireland's"
objection was procedural rather than challenging the idea of data
retention itself.

Though some Irish powers-that-be also don't necessarily like the idea of
the EU having power to decide data retention matters anymore - after
all, the EU directive imposed significantly *shorter* periods than the
Irish government wants. The Irish government wanted to be able to say
"tsk, those damn eurocrats again, requiring us to impose these
unreasonable terms." i.e. usual policy-laundering. However, the EU
directive instead suggests that they went too far even for the EU's
liking (though AFAIK doesn't actually give the EU power to do anything
directly about it, it does require the government to officially notify
the EU that they are exceeding the maximum and (IIRC) by how much, which
is itself signal)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/media/data_retention_4298.jsp

2. Irish Citizens:

At the same time, Digital Rights Ireland is taking legal
action against the Irish Government on the legality of the Irish data
retention law.  That may well eventually hit the European court too.
It is a generally more worthwhile case.

http://www.digitalrights.ie/2006/09/14/dri-brings-legal-action-over-mass-surveillance/