PARIS
The Constitutional Council of France has broadly approved an anti-terrorism bill which grants sweeping powers to the country’s spy network despite criticisms and claims sections are unconstitutional.
Thursday's bill was approved by the National Assembly during a vote on May 5 and the assembly passed the bill on June 24 by a large majority.
The court said in a statement on Thursday that three articles of the bill were unconstitutional, particularly an article which would allow the authorities to conduct operations in emergency situations without seeking permission from the government.
The court also rejected an article on international surveillance because its conditions of use were not defined clearly. An article on financing the intelligence was also not approved.
After the approval, President Francois Hollande released a statement, saying the intelligence law was in accordance with the country’s rights and freedoms. He also said the rejection of the articles did not impair the integrity of the law in question.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on his Twitter account that “From now on, France has a security framework against terrorism that respects liberties. It's decisive progress."
According to the bill, French intelligence agencies will now have the power to receive real-time access to anyone in France’s data connection, email content, log-ins, phone and mobile geo-location data without seeking permission from a judge.
The law also calls for the creation of a new administrative body, the National Committee of Intelligence Technical Control, composed of nine members – four judges, four MPs and a specialist in electronic communications. The body will be responsible for verifying the compliance of monitoring measures.
Previously, French internet rights group La Quadrature du Net strongly denounced the bill and feared it would create a French version of the infamous U.S. intelligence body, the NSA.
