For failing to implement a European Union (EU) directive that calls for anti-terrorism authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mails, the EU executive body has announced it is taking Germany to court.

Consequently, the European Commission seeks a fine from Berlin at the European Court of Justice. “This is a divisive issue for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition,” wrote AP reporter Geir Moulson.

As per the AP report posted by Yahoo! News, Germany's highest court overturned a law meant to implement the EU directive in March 2010, saying it marked a "grave intrusion" into privacy rights and must be revised.

The law ordered that all data – except content – from phone calls and e-mail exchanges must be retained for six months for possible use by criminal authorities to try to determine who contacted whom, from where and for how long, wrote Moulson.

The AP report indicates the law stemmed from a 2006 EU directive requiring telecommunications companies to retain phone data and Internet logs for a minimum six months.

However, “Merkel's conservatives have since pushed for narrower legislation that still broadly implements the directive,” wrote Moulson. “But their junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, question the need for anything more than limited data retention in cases where authorities actually suspect wrongdoing.”

Per this reports description, the Free Democrats run the Justice Ministry, and Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is an ardent opponent of indiscriminate data retention. According to the AP report, “She and her party have shown no sign of backing down as German politicians look ahead to national elections expected late next year.”

On Thursday, however, the European Commission announced the limited freezing of data advocated by the justice minister wouldn't fully comply with the directive from Brussels.

"Ongoing delays in transposing the directive into national law are likely to have a negative effect on the internal market for electronic communications and on the ability of police and justice authorities to detect, investigate and prosecute serious crime," The AP report quoted the European Commission.

The Commission said it would seek a fine of some €315,000 ($390,000) for every day between a ruling in the case by the EU court and Germany complying with EU law.