Clarke moves halfway towards openness on EU anti-terror laws

4.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 13th Jul 2005

The Liberal Democrats' European justice spokeswoman, and Euro-MP for London, Baroness Sarah Ludford, has welcomed the pledge by UK Home Secretary that he will share with MEPs assessments of the effectiveness of the proposed EU law on storing details of all phone and internet use for up to 4 years. But she says:

"The Home Secretary must follow through his warm words about partnership with the European Parliament rather than continue down the route of EU governments legislating secretively with no parliamentary input."

"He is still only half-way towards accepting that EU lawmaking on anti-terror measures should be fully open and democratic. He needs now to allow the European Parliament to have equal weight with Ministers in shaping its provisions and safeguards."

Charles Clarke's move came after he was challenged by Sarah Ludford and other MEPs, when appearing before the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee, to progress the data retention proposal through the route of co-decision with MEPs, adequate legal safeguards and sharing of analysis on the real benefits compared to the privacy infringements.

Sarah Ludford concluded:

"On the face of it, the investigation of the London as well as the Madrid bombings could be done on the basis of records already kept for several months for billing purposes, with targeted 'freezing orders' for suspects' communications. If more is needed, let's debate this openly and rationally."