Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1501361
14 WORLD maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 JUNE 2023 A legislative package adopted by the European Parliament on Tuesday will introduce a coher- ent EU framework for handling electronic evidence, speed up the process of evidence gather- ing, and maintain safeguards for fundamental rights. MEPs adopted the two-part package by 433 votes in favour, 157 against, and 34 abstentions (for the regulation on evidence orders) and 438 votes in favour, 152 against, and 34 abstaining (for the directive on legal rep- resentatives). Transparent mechanism with fundamental rights safeguards The new rules will allow na- tional authorities to request evidence directly from service providers in other member states (so-called "production orders"), or ask that data be preserved for up to 60 days, so that relevant data will not be destroyed or lost ("preserva- tion orders"). The law also introduces a mandatory deadline of 10 days for responding to a production order (eight hours in emergen- cy cases). As part of the same pack- age, MEPs adopted a directive mandating service providers that offer services in the EU to name designated establish- ments or legal representatives where member state authori- ties can address electronic ev- idence requests. MEPs introduced provisions ensuring authorities can re- fuse evidence requests when they have concerns about me- dia freedom or fundamental rights violations in the request- ing member state, and service providers will be able to flag concerns regarding media free- dom. They also ensured ordering authorities requesting sensi- tive data (such as traffic data, except where it is used only for identification, and content data) will in most cases have to notify the authorities in the target country to ensure trans- parency. The European Commission estimates that electronic ev- idence is relevant to 85 % of criminal investigations, and in 65 % of these cases, the ev- idence needs to be obtained from another member state. Evidence can consist of con- tent data (such as text, voice, images, video or sound), traffic data (for example timestamps, protocol and compression de- tails, and information about recipients) or subscriber data (identifying information for a subscriber or customer). Currently, exchanging this kind of evidence depends on a variety of bilateral and inter- national agreements on mutual legal assistance (MLA), result- ing in a fragmented landscape and, often, lengthy procedures. The European Parliament has advocated for harmonising the procedures for cross-border electronic evidence requests since 2017. After the vote, rapporteur Birgit Sippel (S&D, DE) said the vote was a huge step for- ward for the cooperation of law enforcement authorities in EU member states and service pro- viders. "Parliament has ensured that fundamental rights remain protected, as the member state in which the service provider is located will be 'notified' of requests for particularly sen- sitive data, unless the suspect lives in the issuing state and the offence was committed there. The order can then be refused, e.g. where it endangers fundamental rights or where the crime is not a crime in the service provider's country," she said. "We also ensured that these rules are aligned with EU da- ta protection rules and intro- duced a safe, de-centralised software model for the safe exchange of orders and data. Now, it is time for this pack- age to be effectively imple- mented." Electronic evidence: new rules to speed up cross-border criminal investigations BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Minsk will show "no hesitation" on the use of nuclear weapons in the event of an aggression against the country. "I think it is unlikely that anyone would want to fight a country that has such weapons. These are weap- ons of deterrence. … God forbid I have to make a decision on the use of these weapons in modern times. But there will be no hesitation, as long as there is aggression against us," Lukashenko told journalists during a working trip to the capital Minsk region, according to the Be- larusian state news agency Belta. Lukashenko said the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Be- larus was a "necessary" decision so that none "set foot" on Belarusian soil, noting that the decision was his "urgent demand" to Moscow to guarantee his country's security. In late May, Russian and Belaru- sian defense ministers signed an agreement on the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, which stipulates terms for keeping them in a special storage facility. Earlier this year, Putin announced that Russia will deploy tactical nu- clear weapons and complete the construction of a special storage facility for them in neighboring Be- larus. Putin said the move was in re- sponse to growing security risks, stressing that Moscow followed the US, which deployed its tactical nu- clear arms in European countries. Belarus will show 'no hesitation' on use of nuclear weapons in case of aggression - President Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko