European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, responsible for justice, freedom and security, expressed his concern that Malta and five other member states have still not presented any implementation measures of Framework Decision 2005/222 regarding attacks against information systems in member states.

Although member states were obliged to provide the Commission with full information on the implementation by 15 March 2007, Malta together with Slovakia and Spain has neither given any information on the implementation nor replied to a reminder sent out by the Commission in 2007. Ireland, Greece and the United Kingdom have notified the Commission that the implementation has yet to be finalised. Meanwhile Vice- President Barrot welcomed the good level of implementation in a large majority of the member states.

The objective of the framework decision is to improve cooperation between judicial and other competent authorities through estimating rules on criminal law in the member states. This regards illegal access to information systems, illegal system interference and illegal data interference. The report confirms that it has been relatively well implemented in the 20 member states that have notified national implementation terms to the Commission. It also provides a first insight into the implementation of the Framework Decision by member states.

“Recent successive criminal attacks against information systems, in particular the massive attacks directed against Estonian information infrastructures in 2007, underline the need for a closer European coordination of responses to such attacks. I call on the Member States that have not given full effect to the framework decision to correct this situation as soon as possible,” said Vice-President Barrot.