Estonia's European Union Policy

40.    The retention of communications metadata must be permitted in a way that allows law enforcement authorities to effectively prevent and investigate criminal offences, regardless of the location of data within the European Union. Therefore, it is necessary to establish common rules at the EU level on data retention that strike a balance between ensuring security and protecting privacy.

41.    The development of European Union criminal law should be limited to setting only minimum requirements. EU legislation should avoid imposing mandatory additional penalties on legal persons, demanding extensive limitation periods, and including detailed references to types of proceedings and measures. We support the development of a model set of provisions for EU criminal law to avoid specific regulations within EU criminal law and to ensure better alignment with our own criminal law system. 

42.    Cross-border digitisation in the field of justice must be ensured within the EU. To achieve this, the European Union’s IT agency (eu-LISA), which has so far mainly dealt with internal affairs information systems, should be transformed into an IT agency with broader responsibilities to support the development of digital solutions needed for cross-border cooperation in other sectors as well. The Agency’s unit in Tallinn must also be allowed to develop new IT solutions and host information systems, alongside fulfilling its headquarters functions. We see that in the coming years, the agency could play a greater role in supporting cross-border digitisation in the justice sector, as well as hosting IT systems of other EU agencies and developing a secure data communication system for crisis management authorities in Member States and the European Union.

43.    An EU-wide IT platform should be created that enables the electronic submission of requests for mutual recognition of financial penalties and the exchange of information about them with other Member States.