The European Union has been discussing and negotiating a new, contemporary and consistent data protection law for the European Union since 2012.
eco welcomes this approach to modernizing the European data protection law. It provides the opportunity to eradicate the implementation and enforcement differences of the existing legal framework between the Member States. What the foundations are – in the eyes of the Internet industry – that the Member States need to lay at the on-going Trilogue negotiations is explained in eco’s Guidelines on the General Data Protection Regulation.Â
The Guidelines address and explain from the perspective of the Internet industry the most important key points that should be considered in further negotiations:
- An appropriate balance must be kept between data protection and innovative, commercial data processing
- Unnecessary bureaucracy for companies should be avoided
- Protect citizens from unjustified profile building
- Ensure a balance between data protection and the freedom to communicate
In its coalition agreement, the German Federal Government announced its intention to advocate for a swift enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2015. The Trilogue (negotiations between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament) began in June 2015 and should be finalized by the end of the year so that the General Data Protection Regulation can still be passed in 2015.
eco calls on the German Federal Government to support a swift agreement that is appropriate and in the interests of all those concerned. In this way the General Data Protection Regulation could become the keystone in implementing a digital single market.
The eco Guidelines on the reform of the General Data Protection Regulation can be downloaded here.
