User:Sebastian Raible/sandbox/e-Evidence

The name e-Evidence refers to two legislative proposals of the European Commission, brought forward on 17 April 2018. The main proposal is the Proposal for a Regulation on European Production and Preservation Orders for electronic evidence in criminal matters, accompanied by the supporting Proposal for a Directive laying down harmonised rules on the appointment of legal representatives for the purpose of gathering evidence in criminal proceedings.

The proposals are currently being negotiated between the legislators, the Parliament and the Council.

Objective
According to the European Commission, the proposal is to facilitate law enforcement access to electronic evidence for the purpose of criminal investigations. The Commission lists data "such as texts, e-mails or messaging apps" as examples of electronic evidence.

Procedure
The Commission (as the body holding the right of initiative) has made two legislative proposals. The European Parliament and the Council as legislators have taken positions in regard to the Commission proposal.

On 10 February 2021, the Council under the Portuguese Presidency, and the European Parliament started their legislative negotiations under participation of the Commission ("Trilogue"). It is not known yet when the negotiations are expected to conclude.

European Parliament
In the European Parliament, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) has received the lead competence working on the proposals. MEP Birgit Sippel was appointed rapporteur on 24 May 2018 and subsequently produced a number of working documents with the shadow rapporteurs in the LIBE committee.

After the European elections in 2019, Birgit Sippel was reappointed rapporteur for the package on 4 September 2019. The committee reached its first reading position and decided to open interinstitutional negotiations on 7 December 2020, receiving approval in plenary on 14 December 2020.

Council of the European Union
The Bulgarian presidency of the Council produced its first note on the e-Evidence proposal on 25 May 2018 and reached a preliminary political agreement on 30 November 2018 under the then acting Austrian Council presidency, after a group of eight Member States had expressed "great concern" in a letter to European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, however failing to create a blocking minority, that could have stopped the adoption in the Council.

Next steps
Once trilogue negotiations are concluded, both Parliament and Council have to conclude their first reading procedures, and the proposals can become law.

Reactions
Think tank Centre for European Policy Studies and the Global Policy Institute at Queen Mary University in London set up a task force including "EU and national policymakers, providers of internet and telecommunications services, prosecutors, criminal lawyers, civil society actors and academic experts". Its report was published in October 2020 and concluded, among other things, "The e-evidence proposals should be withdrawn because they fail to meet normative standards and rule of law requirements."

In an early statement of EDRi, the organization criticised the Commission to "[take] dangerous shortcuts to allow national authorities to obtain people's data directly from companies, basically turning them into judicial authorities."

Public Consultation
According to the Commission's assessment of the results of its public consultation, accompanying the legislative proposal, "nearly half of the public survey respondents" perceived "the increasing use of information society services […] as a challenge to the work of law enforcement and judicial authorities". 82% of "respondents answering in their personal capacity selected 'very relevant' or 'relevant'" regarding concerns about possible negative impacts on rights.