Charles Clarke today issued an ultimatum to the European Parliament to fall into line over new EU laws to help track terrorists through e-mail and telecoms information.The exasperated Home Secretary gave MEPs until the end of the year to agree to legislation which has been the subject of internal EU wrangling since last year's Madrid bombings. His patience ran out at talks between European home affairs ministers in Luxembourg, after months of fruitless debate with MEPs, who fear that keeping records of calls and e-mails will endanger civil liberties.
Virtually all EU governments and police forces across Europe are in agreement on the plans, which would force internet and telecoms companies to store phone data for at least one year and e-mail traffic records for at least six months. Mr Clarke wanted to use Britain’s EU presidency to push for even longer retention of electronic communications information, but has been thwarted by resistance from Strasbourg.
Today, in a final concession to MEPs’ fears, he steered today’s talks towards a compromise, promising that electronic telecoms data would be stored for no longer than two years. He warned afterwards that although he wanted a deal with MEPs’ agreement if possible, EU ministers would adopt the new anti-terror laws anyway in December, as planned.