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The President of the Republic enacted today as law Parliamentary Decree No. 240/X, which authorizes the Government to legislate on the obligatory installation of an electronic licensing device in all motor vehicles.

The President of the Republic considers that the reservations placed upon the limitation in confidentiality of citizen’s private affairs due to the new electronic identification and detection device for vehicles, which were not made clear during the parliamentary debate, can be resolved by the Government in the decree-law to be approved following the enactment of the legislation now authorized.

The issues placed by the legislation under review greatly overcome the experience with the “Via Verde” – “Green Throughway” – or the community regulations covering the European Electronic Toll Service. The issue is, on the one hand, the need to stress that the technology to be used does not pervert, in practice, the objectives of road traffic control and, on the other, very clearly ensure that the personal data obtained are treated with the greatest confidentiality together with a system that effectively guarantees such confidentiality.

This is undoubtedly a particularly sensitive issue with respect to the safeguarding of citizen’s private affairs, and which demands adequate legislative attention and a number of substantive guarantees, which must be covered by the decree-law that will be issued following the enactment of the legislative authorization, such as transmitted in writing by the President of the Republic to the Government.