[persbericht] EU law-making process cracking under pressure

[Wiebe van der Worp]

PRESS RELEASE FFII -- [ Europe / ICT / Information Society ]

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EU law-making process cracking under pressure
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7 December 2005 (Brussels, Belgium)  The EU "fast-food factory" is
producing hasty and unsafe laws like the Big Brother anti-privacy law,
warns the FFII, an international information rights group based in
Munich.

"The EU legislative process is turning into a fast-food factory fed by
special interests", says Pieter Hintjens, president of the FFII.  He
points out: "Instead of the careful, balanced, and impartial process
we expect to see, law-making is becoming hasty, heavily lobbied, and
driven by autocratic commercial and political agendas. The Big Brother
anti-privacy law (aka 'data retention directive') is symptomatic of
wider problems."

He continues: "Europe's citizens are being caught in a 'triple trap'.
First, we have lost control over the process, and our elected bodies
are being bullied into accepting bad laws.  Second, laws are being
passed to make ordinary citizens into criminals on a massive scale.
Third, the EU is gaining the power to enforce its criminal sanctions
in member nations."

Jonas Maebe of the FFII says: "The Council and Commission have not
given up on their strategy on trying to push through Parliament
whatever they like. They misrepresent independent studies. They
encourage Parliament to disregard due diligence in the interest of
some vague higher goal: the Lisbon agenda in the software patents
case, fighting terrorism in case of data retention. Stakeholders don't
get a proper chance to be heard, or are plainly ignored."

The only directly-elected body in the EU decision-making process is
the European Parliament.  The fast-food factory of the Council and
Commission throws directives at the elected Parliament under such
pressure that the Parliament does not have time to analyse them.

Jonas Maebe continues: "We need a Parliament which can say a clear
'NO' to indiscriminate legislative spamming and pressure by the
Commission and Council. We need good directives, and a good directive
means a proper overview of the big picture, proper impact assessment,
time to consider concerns of civil society and industry, and
especially time for Parliament to form its own opinion."

For an analysis of how the data retention directive is being pushed
through the EP, see: http://wiki.ffii.org/DataRet0512En


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Background Information
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* Data retention: legislative sausage machine in overdrive
  http://wiki.ffii.org/DataRet0512En

* News, position papers on and analysis of the directive
  http://wiki.dataretentionisnosolution.com

* Procedural overview of the directive
  http://www.europarl.eu.int/oeil/file.jsp?id=5275032

* Permanent link to this press release
  http://wiki.ffii.org/DataRetProcPr051207En


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Contact Information
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Erik Josefsson
FFII Brussels Permanent representative
ehj @ ffii.org
+32-484-082063


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About the FFII -- http://www.ffii.org
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The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) is a
non-profit association registered in several European countries, which
is dedicated to the spread of data processing literacy. FFII supports
the development of public information goods based on copyright, free
competition, open standards. More than 850 members, 3,000 companies
and 90,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in
public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual
property) in data processing.