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24th April 2024 Issue no. 702

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EU impedes European security services

Sweden's top security and intelligence official has issued a stark warning about Brussels' latest intrusion into national affairs. Security head Johan Olsson complains that his agency's ability to react to terrorist atrocities has been massively impaired by a recent EU law that allows telecoms companies to delete or withhold data.

"If a bomb exploded outside a religious community hall, the first thing we do is look at which mobile phones have been there, which gives us immediate and valuable clues, that's basically what we to start with," says Mr Olsson.

But that is no longer the case thanks to the EU's Data Retention Directive introduced last year. "Our ability to catch up to the other players in time is significantly worse. Our ability to stop and repel attacks has gone down, [the EU Directive] has major implications for us".

Mr Olsson's comments come amid a growing controversy in Brussels. The most damning claim made in a study by the Impact Assessment Institute is that only half the EU's legislative proposals announced in 2016 were subject to impact assessment.

1st February 2017