Unfortunately I could hardly predict when the Court will deliver its ruling, however this is not the first time this Court deals with data retention questions. In March and October 2008 urgent motions were referred to the Court and it issued interim orders by thus limiting providers’ handover obligations with respect to retained data.

Yes, I am aware of the legislative deliberations in Bulgaria and, in particular, with the ministry of interior’s greediness to access and stockpile data. Another Constitutional Court’s affirmative decision, I believe, should be able to persuade the legislators in Bulgaria to at least reconsider some of the aspects of the current bill. For example the drafters of the Austrian bill neither defined an “interface” term nor did they implement the existing ETSI interface recommendation. They simply proposed a technology neutral handover of retained data in a .CSV file.

I know that you are familiar with the amazingly vigorous attempt of the Bulgarian authorities to obtain an access to the data flow of the Bulgarian internet and mobile communication users.. I wonder whether a decision of the German Constitutional Court could aid our efforts to prevent the promulgation of the drafted Bill..

Keep it up!