Daily Telegraph London 30/5/2000 Private records opened to EU By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard In Brussels EUROPEAN governments will have powers to trawl through the personal records of British citizens suspected of criminal conduct under an agreement approved by Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, at a meeting of European Union ministers yesterday. The new Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance will allow EU member states to request e-mail, fax, and telephone records of suspected criminals in other EU countries, in some cases without a specific court order. They will also be allowed to request surveillance of telecommunications traffic, which can include intercepts of data and voice messages. Britain can refuse to comply in certain circumstances if the request clashes with British law, but the agreement stipulates that in general states "shall undertake to comply with requests" for assistance. The convention is aimed at drug trafficking, child pornography, and other forms of serious cross-border crime, but the document does not specify the offences. Last year, the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee raised questions about the document's failure to define what sort of crimes could justify such intrusive surveillance. The European Parliament also lodged objections, responding to concerns that cross-border surveillance requests could be misused to pursue minor offenders or even to keep watch on political opponents. The document was not seriously changed. "It's a massive extension of the power to law enforcement agencies," said Tony Bunyan, head of Statewatch, a civil rights organisation. "Police forces in another country can basically say, 'Here's a telephone line we want to tap' and there's not much to stop them." But Mr Straw said it was a necessary instrument for fighting organised crime. The convention is intended to update the original 1959 agreement to bring it into line with modern technology. It still has to be ratified by the parliaments of the EU's 15 member states, but the text cannot be changed. In parallel with the convention, the Government also signed up to parts of the EU's Schengen Agreement on police co-operation. But Mr Straw is keeping Britain out of the Schengen provisions on immigration, asylum, and visas, so that Britain will be allowed to keep its border controls. ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor,1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., PMB 176, Columbus, OH 43229 Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/ **************************************************************************
