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UK pushes new anti-terror measures
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke says he is confident of securing a deal with his European counterparts on controversial counter-terrorist measures. The UK, which chairs the European Union until December, has been pushing for agreement on the measures since the London bombings on July 7. Clarke wants new cross-European standards for retaining information about mobile phone calls and the Internet. Almost 70 EU ministers are attending a summit in Newcastle, northern England, on Thursday, to discuss the measures. Speaking before the meeting, Clarke said he believed difficulties over civil liberties concerns and costs could be resolved. "I think we will be able to overcome these issues," Clarke said. "A number of national parliaments, including the Dutch, have got significant issues of concern about this. "I was discussing this with the Dutch minister yesterday evening and I think we will be able to find a solution." Clarke insists that storing billions of mobile phone records, showing when and where calls were made, and to whom, will be a vital tool for police investigating major criminals and terrorists. Phone companies already store the data for a short time for billing purposes, but then delete it. But some EU ministers fear such a move would infringe civil liberties, while some telecommunications companies argue it would be too expensive for them to store such huge amounts of data. Clarke said: "I don't think either of these issues are justified. They are quite real issues of substance which will need to be addressed. "Getting some sort of uniformity across Europe is important because this is such an important technique in helping solve crimes and dealing with counter-terrorism." Earlier this year the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE), threw out similar plans to retain mobile phone and Internet records due to "sizeable doubts on the choice of the legal basis and the proportionality of the measures." A report by the committee pointed out that it would take police up to 100 years to analyze such massive mountains of data. Its report said: "If all the traffic data covered by the proposal did indeed have to be stored, the network of a large Internet provider would, even at today's traffic levels, accumulate a data volume of ... roughly four million kilometers' worth of full files, which in turn is equivalent to 10 stacks of files each reaching from Earth to the moon. "With a data volume this huge, one search using existing technology without additional investment would take 50 to 100 years." At present there is a voluntary deal in the UK for the data to be held for between six months and a year. Thursday's informal summit in Newcastle will also look at a wide range of Europe's counter-terrorist measures. Clarke said on Wednesday that he wanted a rethink on the way the European Convention on Human Rights prevents terror suspects being deported to countries where they may face persecution, although he denied that he wanted the document re-written. He also risked angering the British judiciary by insisting they should "respect" deals the government is currently seeking with a number of Middle Eastern and north African countries to allow deportation. Shadow home secretary David Davis yesterday said he backed the telecommunications moves, providing they had proper safeguards to avoid a "European snoopers' charter." 
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