A new text on metadata has been approved in the specialty, but the parties admit that it contradicts the Tax Code

The PS and PSD agreed text on metadata was approved in detail this Wednesday by the Constitutional Affairs Committee, with several parties acknowledging the complexity of the issue and the possibility of facing constitutional scrutiny.

At a meeting of the parliamentary committee on constitutional issues, rights, freedoms and guarantees, the parties ratified Tuesday’s vote in the working group on communication metadata, in which the PS, SDP and Chega voted in favor of all articles of the replacement text, while IL opposed all of them , and the PKP abstained in the majority.

BE, which was not present at the meeting of the working group, reported this Wednesday through the deputy Pedro Filipe Soares that it also votes against all articles in the replacement text, citing the arguments already presented, namely that it is against the “indiscriminate collection of data from citizens” .

After approval at the plenary session on Friday, guaranteed by the positive votes of the PS and PSD, the diploma will be sent to Belem and then sent to the Constitutional Court (TC), since the President of the Republic has already announced that he will demand preventive measures. verification of the diploma, believing that “there cannot be a shadow of doubt” about its constitutionality.

During the discussion leading up to ratification, Social Democratic Party deputy Pedro Delgado Alves suggested that finding a solution to overcome the TC’s declaration of unconstitutionality “is a difficult exercise” and “there are no guarantees of success at any level.”

“We believe that this text is an important contribution to this process, and we hope that it will lead to the best outcome. But finally, the old maxim: hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” he said, adding that until now So far, no European Union (EU) member state has been able to find a solution to this issue.

Social Democratic MP Monica Quintela also stressed that the legislative process on metadata is “complex” and is developed at the supranational level, acknowledging that the text agreed by the PS and PSD “may be short” for the purposes of criminal investigations.

“But at the moment, since the ruling cannot go much further, let’s hope that the problem will – if it does not pass the TC test now – be resolved at EU level,” he said.

As for Chegi, parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto justified the party’s vote on all articles of the PS and PSD text, saying it was an “important and well-done” job, and stating that the most important thing is that there is a law on the matter, “like as fast as possible”.

IL MP Patricia Gilvaz stated that her party does not follow the text of the PSD and SDP as she believes that it goes “against consolidated jurisprudence” and “will run into the TC because it does not respect some of its guiding principles, such as maintaining a generalized and undifferentiated metadata forms.”

In the same spirit, PCP deputy Alma Rivera believed that some elements envisaged in the PS and PSD texts would be “highly likely to be raised by the TC”, despite the fact that this should not taint the reflections developed in the working group, which gave “Important Steps”.

As a way of overcoming the claim of unconstitutionality, the text agreed by the PS and the SDP provides that traffic and location data will be stored in aggregate form for “three months from the date of conclusion of the communication, noting that this period is extended to six months if the owner doesn’t mind.” In cases with “reasonable judicial authorization,” such conservation can last up to one year.

The Diploma also proposes that when data is accessed, its holders be notified “within a maximum period of 10 days,” unless the public prosecutor objects, and that they are kept in “Portugal or in the territory of another Member State of the Diploma.” European Union”.