WRITTEN QUESTION E-3803/00

by Maurizio Turco (TDI) to the Commission

(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.

The Commission:

- will it 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.

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(22 March 2001)

1. The extended transposition period for Article 5 of Directive 97/66/EC was agreed at the request of one of the Member States which required more time to create a legal basis for the provisions contained in paragraph 2 of that Article.

2. The Directive has now been substantially transpose by ten Member States (Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom). At present, only two Member States have not notified transposition instruments for Directive 97/66/EC to the Commission, one Member State has notified only partially, and in three Member States, although measures have been notified, transposition remains incomplete in the view of the Commission. Infringement procedures have been launched in all of these cases. One infringement proceeding concerning France is pending before the Court of Justice (C-151/00), in two other cases, concerning Ireland and Luxembourg, the Commission has decided on referral to the Court. With regard to Article 5, transposition measures have now been notified by 11 Member States; the Commission, by separate infringements proceedings, sent letters of formal notice to the remaining four Member States (France, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg) on 5 December 2000.

3. The Commission is still in the process of checking whether the transposition of the Directive is also correct in substance.

4. In view of the above, the Commission considers the overall state of formal transposition of Directive 97/66/EC by the Member States to be relatively satisfactory, subject to a number of problems which remain to be solved.

Regarding Directive 95/46/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, the Commission is committed by Article 33 of that Directive to report on its implementation to the Council and the Parliament at regular intervals, and for the first time by the end of 2001. Depending on the conclusions of these reports, the Commission may propose amendments to the Directive, but this is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Meanwhile, the Commission has identified a limited number of difficulties with existing Directive 97/66/EC where a certain lack of technology neutrality of some of the provisions threatens to cause different levels of data protection depending on the type of electronic communication service that is used. As the Commission is committed to ensuring a high level of data protection within the Information Society, it sees no reason to delay resolving these problems.