The CDU/CSU parliamentary group accuses the traffic light of delaying a regulation on the future of data retention in the fight against child abuse. The legal policy spokesman of the Union parliamentary group, Günter Krings (CDU), called it "scandalous" in a Bundestag debate on Friday that many cases of serious abuse could not be pursued. He called on the federal government to submit a bill.

Shortly after the ruling of the European Court of Justice last September, the Union parliamentary group had submitted a motion on IP address storage, which has since been in the Committee on Legal Affairs. Although the committee has decided to hold a hearing, it has not yet been scheduled. After ten weeks of sessions, a parliamentary group has the right to demand a report in the Bundestag on the status of the deliberations.

Although Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) presented a bill on the so-called quick freeze procedure last October, since then there has been no progress. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) does not consider the mere possibility of freezing data in suspected cases to be sufficient and insists on storing IP addresses. The European Court of Justice has expressly allowed this, but the FDP and Greens do not want to participate.

IP address often the only clue

Krings described the quick-freeze procedure as a "sham solution", since corresponding data is no longer available in many cases. IP addresses are constantly changing. It depends on the telecommunications provider whether data is stored for a few more days for billing purposes.

The Castrop-Rauxel terror suspect, who is said to have prepared an Islamist-motivated attack, was identified in January by his IP address. According to investigators, however, she would have been gone a few hours later. In the area of child pornography alone, more than 19,000 cases reported from the United States have been followed up in recent years.

Sebastian Fiedler, SPD member of parliament and former chairman of the Federation of German Criminal Officers, also recalled this on Friday in the Bundestag. He took the liberty of expressing his opinion and not – like other traffic light deputies – hiding behind the formalities. He explained that the IP address is often the only starting point for investigations. "I ask everyone in the coalition to disarm," Fiedler said. This includes dispensing with fighting terms such as "permanent surveillance".