With today’s approval of the Telecommunications Modernisation Act, the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) has once again adopted data retention - and the German legislator is once again breaking EU law.

The eco Association is highly critical of the fact that the German coalition is apparently ignoring all warnings about the consequences of source telecommunication surveillance and the use of so-called “State Trojans”, and calls for a hearing with digital experts in the Bundestag.

The eco Association welcomes a recognition from public administration digital experts of the importance of a Ministry for Digitalisation. Alongside a new level of organisation at government level, eco also calls for the establishment of a digital steering committee in the German Bundestag.

When it comes to digital policy, German voters give the federal government a poor rating, and are calling for digital issues to be accorded greater political priority in the coming legislative term. eco formulates an Internet Policy Agenda for the Bundestag elections with 20 core demands from the Internet industry for a modern digital policy.