Reform Of EU Data Protection – Largest EU Lobbying Campaign Ever?

“We live in an age changed and characterised by the use of information about individuals and personalised data and we need clear and differentiated rules how to handle this,” Green Member of the European Parliament Jan Philipp Albrecht, one of the lead rapporteurs for the data protection reform in Europe, said today. “General principles alone are not sufficient.”

The EU data protection reform process was started a year ago with European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding tabling proposals. The reform effort entered a decisive phase today with the presentation of the draft reports of Albrecht on the General Data Protection Regulation and Greek Dimitrios Droutsas (S&D) on a related directive regulating the use of personal data by law enforcement.

The European Parliament over the coming months will carve out the final text it wants to negotiate with the member states. The Irish presidency made the data protection dossier a focal point of their presidency. Albrecht said that mere general principles alone would not allow citizens to enforce their rights as they would have to fight for them in the courts.

Industry associations in Europe and the United States respectively are warning against stricter limitations or bans of the commercial exploitation of data and potential costs to comply to data protection rules. Non-EU companies offering services – even free-of-charge – for EU citizens will be covered by the regulation.

This has made the EU data protection reform the target of a great deal of lobbying already. Albrecht said the EU legislators have to face likely the “largest lobbying campaign ever.”