April 30, 2015 | Posted in:Uncategorized

Today, the first round of discussions on the bill on the removal of Data Retention from Icelandic law will take place in parliament.

Yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Slovakia cancelled mass surveillance of its citizens. The European Information Society Institute reported:

“The decision of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic was issued almost a year after the Court of Justice of the European Union proclaimed the Data Retention Directive invalid in the Spring of 2014. At that time, the Constitutional Court of Slovakia promptly reacted by suspending the collection of data through a preliminary measure. Today, data collection was completely cancelled.”

Currently, there is uncertainty of what action, if any, the EU will take given the ruling by the European Court of Justice, which invalidated the EU directive on Data Retention on the 8th of April 2014. Indeed, Dimitris Avramopoulos, an EU commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, has said that there are no plans for a new EU directive on Data Retention. The trend in Europe to view Data Retention as unconstitutional, disproportional and violating privacy is growing.

Another bill of great importance to the IMMI safe haven objective, as well as democratic progression on the whole, is the bill on Whistleblower Protection, which will also enter the first round of discussions in parliament today. The bill has been in the works for quite some time now, but its adoption into law would represent a major step forward, enabling whistleblowers to bring forth information into the public domain. This would increase access to information necessary for a meaningful democratic society, whilst also providing protections to whistleblowers in the aim of bringing forth important information relevant to the public’s interests.

We will provide further updates as and when they happen.