In their coalition agreement, the traffic light partners have made it their goal to restrict data retention.

In the future, data should only be stored “on an ad hoc basis and by judicial decision”.

In their contract, the SPD, Greens and FDP refer to the “current legal uncertainty”, Berlin is still waiting for a judgment from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Data retention has been in law since 2015, but due to doubts about its compatibility with European law, the Federal Network Agency is not actually applying it until the decision from Luxembourg.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The ECJ has already ruled several times on the question under which conditions telecommunications companies may be obliged to store telephone and Internet connection data - and under which not.

Some countries have changed their laws as a result.

Ireland must now do the same.

The ECJ confirmed its line once again on Tuesday - and thus gave Berlin an indication of the outcome of the German proceedings.

A member state can therefore order the general storage of traffic and location data if this state faces a “serious threat to national security”.

The threat must be real and current or foreseeable.

In contrast, such retention violates EU fundamental rights to privacy and the protection of personal data when used to combat serious crime.

Irish law considered this objective sufficient to retain the data.

Ireland argued before the European Court of Justice that particularly serious crime equated to a threat to national security.

The Grand Chamber in Luxembourg did not accept this argument.

The ECJ distinguishes between national security and public security.

He interprets the first term more narrowly, meaning, for example, attacks on the supporting structures of a country and the immediate threat to the population, for example from terrorists.

The "general and constant risk" of disruption of public security through criminal offenses cannot be equated with such a scenario.

The traffic light parties see their path confirmed.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) said: "Contemporary criminal prosecution requires precise investigative powers in the digital sphere that protect fundamental rights." Freeze procedures could be used to 'freeze' data that is important for criminal prosecution before it is deleted and made accessible to investigators with a court order.

Luxembourg has expressly declared this possibility to be permissible.