On December 15, 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in Case C-524/06 Heinz Huber v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland, which involved the legality of a database (Central Register of Foreign Nationals) maintained by the German Federal Government containing residence information about European Union citizens who are not German citizens. The ECJ concluded that such database is incompatible with the EU Data Protection Directive, unless: (a) it contains only the data necessary for the application by public residence authorities of the legislation relating to the right of residence; and (b) the centralized nature of the database enables a more effective application of that legislation. The ECJ further stated that the storage and processing of personal data in the Central Register of Foreign Nationals for statistical purposes cannot be considered to be necessary within the meaning of the EU Data Protection Directive. The full text of the judgment is available here.