The PS said on Monday that it will evaluate the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the metadata decree before deciding whether to try to find a new solution before the dissolution of parliament.
In response to Lusa, PS deputy Pedro Delgado Alves – who was part of the working group on metadata – indicated that the socialist bank will still “read and evaluate the ruling of the Constitutional Court (TC) and only then decide on “the next steps to give”.
This Monday, the TC declared the decree of parliament, which regulates access to metadata of communications for the purpose of criminal investigations, unconstitutional for exceeding “the limits of proportionality in restricting fundamental rights”.
The announcement was made at the TC’s headquarters in Lisbon by the president, José João Abrantes, who said that nine judges, against three, had ruled on the unconstitutionality of the decree rule providing for the widespread retention of traffic and location data . up to a period of six months.
For the judges of Palácio Ratton, the rule in question “exceeds the limits of proportionality in limiting the fundamental rights to informational self-determination and the reservation of the intimacy of private life”.
The decree had been approved in the General Assembly of the Republic on October 13, in a final global vote, with votes in favor from PS, PSD and Chega and votes against from IL, PCP, BE and Livre, and was then sent by the President. of the Republic to the TC to monitor compliance with the fundamental law.
The rule that the TC declared unconstitutional last Monday provided that traffic and location data would be retained in a general manner “for a period of three months from the date of completion of the communication, with this period being extended to six months, unless the holder thereof has objected”.
The Palácio Ratton judges considered that the other rules whose review had been requested by the President of the Republic were not unconstitutional.
In concrete terms, the articles requiring data to be kept “in Portugal or in the territory of another Member State of the European Union” are in accordance with the Constitution and data subjects must, as a rule, be informed “within a maximum period of 10 days” when the data in question is accessed.
This decree, jointly drafted by PS and PSD, was a way for deputies to overcome the declaration of unconstitutionality already pronounced by the TC on April 12, 2022 regarding the so-called metadata law.
Source: DN
