RIP Act May Break EU Law

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 27th Oct 2000

Lib Dem Euro-MP Diana Wallis has revealed that the UK Government's Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act may be against various European Union laws regarding privacy of emails.

In a Parliamentary Question to the European Commission, Diana Wallis MEP asked whether measures such as email interception along the lines of that covered in the RIP legislation were "unacceptable

measures on the basis that they are a breach of the right to privacy and free speech."

Answering the Question in writing, European Commissioner Liikanen said: "The Commission is currently examining the Act to determine if it is compatible with the provisions of several Community

dispositions."

It also confirmed that the Commission is carefully looking at the Act on no less than 4 separate counts of possible contravention of EC directives and the EC Treaty itself.

"The irony is that this Act was put forward by the Government supposedly to implement part of an EU Directive on Data Protection - actually protecting citizens from intrusion," said Diana Wallis MEP. "But the Government has chosen to concentrate on the

possible exception to when data protection applies - to give itself and its agents wide investigatory powers to tap and intercept communications.

"It looks as though it might have gone too far and it will be Europe who acts as the citizens' guardian and champion against a government seeking inappropriate powers."