WRITTEN QUESTION E-3803/00 by Maurizio Turco (TDI) to the Commission. Transposal of Directive 97/66/EC.
Date: 2000-12-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU Member State, data processing, national implementing measure, personal data, protection of privacy, telecommunications

C 235 E/22

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

21.8.2001

(2001/C 235 E/026)

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: (cid:145)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(cid:146).

The Commission:

(cid:129) will it say why provision was made for a derogation in respect of Article 5?

(cid:129) what does it intend to do about the nine countries which have not yet taken any measures? What

procedures will it initiate and when?

(cid:129) has it checked whether the directive has been correctly transposed in the other countries?

(cid:129) 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)

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

The Directive has now been substantially transpose by ten Member States (Denmark, Germany,
2.
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.

The Commission is still in the process of checking whether the transposition of the Directive is also

3.
correct in substance.

In view of the above, the Commission considers the overall state of formal transposition of Directive
4.
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.

21.8.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 235 E/23

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.

(2001/C 235 E/027)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3822/00

by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council

(7 December 2000)

Subject: The Nordic Passport Union and Article 45 of the Schengen Convention

Will the Nordic Passport Union be undermined by Article 45 of the Schengen Convention which requires
all participating countries to ensure that all hotels, campsites, hostels and other overnight accommodation
register all foreign guests and require them to show valid papers?

In other words: will the Schengen Convention mean that Danish citizens, for example, will have to take
their passports to Sweden if they wished to stay overnight, thus changing the rules curently applying under
the Nordic Passport Union?

Reply

(7 May 2001)

Under the terms of the Nordic Passport Union, nationals of the Nordic countries are entitled to travel
within the territory of the Nordic countries without being required to produce a passport.

The accession agreements of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of
Sweden to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and the agreement between the Council
of the European Union, the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Iceland on the association of those
two countries with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis include
a provision whereby those agreements should (cid:145)not prejudice the cooperation within the framework of the
Nordic Passport Union, in so far as such cooperation does not conflict with, or impede(cid:146), the application of
the agreements (1).

Under Article 45(1)(a), Title III, Chapter 1, on police cooperation, of the Schengen Convention, the
Contracting Parties undertake to adopt the necessary measures in order to ensure that the managers of
establishments providing accommodation or their agents see to it that aliens accommodated therein,
including nationals of the other Contracting Parties and those of other Member States of the European
Communities, with the exception of accompanying spouses or accompanying minors, personally complete
and sign registration forms and confirm their identity by producing a valid identity document.

The application of the Schengen acquis by the Nordic countries neither conflicts with nor impedes the
Nordic Passport Union. When the acquis is implemented by the Nordic countries (as from 25 March 2001),
nationals of those countries will still be entitled to travel within the territory of the Nordic countries and
stay overnight at hotels, camp sites etc. without being required to produce a passport.

However, the manager of an establishment providing accommodation or his employee is required to
ensure that nationals of other Contracting Parties personally complete and sign declaration forms and
confirm their identity by producing a valid identity document,
in accordance with Article 45 of the
Schengen Convention.

(1) See OJ L 239, 22.9.2000, p. 115 et seq. and OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36 et seq.