for people interested in this issue, the Council's proposal has been thrown out: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/27/meps_reject_uk_proposal/
Bascially, the current proposal (a Council decision, i.e. just the national govts, MEPs aren't involved) has been thrown out and a new one is being written by the Commission (which will be presented to the MEPs for amendments).
The last two paragraphs of that article describe the new proposal:
=====8<---------- The Commission proposal puts an upper limit on the time data must be stored: one year for telecoms data and six months in the case of internet information. It also proposes that communications companies are compensated for the additional costs they will incur, complying with the new laws.
Yesterday, the official in charge of data protection in the EU said he was still not convinced of the necessity of the proposals put forward in the directive, and said further safeguards were needed to protect citizens' privacy. =====8<----------
Note that the new proposal puts a limit on the time data *must* be stored - not on how long it *can* be stored.
Also, I've heard that the UK is using this issues as part of an "anti-terrorism" package that it wants to race through before the end of December (to leave a mark for its presidency). If if we/anyone's to have an impact on this, they should act quickly.