Joe - I don’t think liked the status quo and I doubt they thought that the court would use the legal point it did to strike down the measure. Their concerns are as valid as before. I think it’s just important to understand the identity of EU and US interests in this and all other data mining issues. (Mostly national) European politicians are hiding behind alleged US pressure and are using EU institutions to do what they want just as much.

The lack of American privacy regulations will become the predominant issue in the next round. The US has already announced it wants to tap into the European telcos retained pool of telecommunications data. Quite frankly, in my opinion, this will only end after a national constitutional court rules it incompatible with a a national constitution. My guess is it’s gonna happen in Karlsruhe, Germany, a couple of months after the directive has become German law.

Not a concern to the EU parliamentarians, for whom this was always about their vanity ‘anti-US’ pose. How much more angry they would be if they understood how little Americans care about their hissy fits!