Greek legislation failed to incorporate wiretap directive

European Commissioner Viviane Reding notes four-year delay in implementation

By Constantinos Kallergis - Kathimerini

BRUSSELS - A legal deficit for which Greece is responsible is at the heart of the Vodafone affair, European Commissioner for Communications Viviane Reding told Kathimerini, as Brussels has gotten wind of the recent phone-tapping scandal.

In July 2002, Reading noted, European Union governments and the European Parliament approved Directive 2002/58, “aimed at protecting the basic rights of private individuals and in particular their private lives.” Member states will “ensure, by means of national legislation, the confidentiality of telecommunications and related data used by telecommunications networks and public electronic telecommunications services.”

She said that the same directive provides legal means to define the circumstances under which those rights may be set aside for reasons of public order and national security.

However, Reding explained, Greece has not incorporated the directive into national legislation and the EC has activated the process of referring Greece to the European Court, even though “according to information received by the Commission, the [Greek] Parliament has recently submitted a draft bill incorporating the directive into Greek law.”

As for the details of the “wiretap business” as Reding calls it, the former journalist and president of the journalists’ union in her native Luxembourg (who is married to a Greek) refused to make any comment.

She simply noted that the EC’s office in Athens had made a report and that in general the EC does not comment “on issues that are already being handled by the national judicial authorities responsible for them.”

This time the deficit is not in the legislation but in the implementation, the commissioner said, albeit indirectly, in relation to mobile telephony in Greece.

“In general, competition is working,” she said, adding that the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) had advised the European Commission that it plans to take further steps to bolster competition.

What is still “unjustifiable” are the rates being charged for roaming. As Reding explained, “the problem there is the legislation, since the authority has the power to regulate the [Greek] roaming market.”

Apart from describing charges as “unjustifiably high,” the commissioner made no further comments on the subject, except to note that the European regulation on roaming charges that she presented a few days ago will be approved this year. The regulation will automatically apply to member states and, unlike EU directives, does not need approval by national parliaments, Reding noted.