Recital 2

Measures to obtain and preserve electronic evidence are increasingly important for criminal investigations and prosecutions across the Union. Effective mechanisms to obtain electronic evidence are essential to combat crime, and such mechanisms should be subject to conditions and safeguards to ensure full compliance with fundamental rights and principles recognised in Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’), in particular the principles of necessity and proportionality, due process, protection of privacy and personal data and confidentiality of communications.