Support Our Work Mailing list About / Contact
  • Home /
  • News /
  • 2007 /
  • may /
  • EU: Draft Framework Decision on data protection on police and judicial matters

EU: Draft Framework Decision on data protection on police and judicial matters

01 May 2007

Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

European Parliament's draft report (pdf) This proposes a number of substantial amendments to what is termed "the Commission proposal" - in fact this is the completely re-drafted German Council Presidency version of March 2007 to which the Commission acceded (this therefore replaced its original proposal of October 2005).

In the meantime the German Council Presidency has produced a new document (EU doc no: 9732/07, dated 16 May 2007) to try and deal with two issues on which the Council (the 27 governments) are divided: First, the scope of the measure - should it only cover exchanges of personal data between member states or led to new national laws? This is the most convoluted and incomprehensible idea seen in many years.

And second, what rules should govern the passing of data outside the EU. The Presidency proposal further "waters down" rules on passing personal data outside the EU by saying that instead of these states having "adequate" protections (ie: in line with EU laws) we get "appropriate safeguards". All existing bilateral and multilateral (ie: EU) agreements with the USA are left untouched in the proposal.

Strong criticism voiced by the European Data Protection Authorities meeting in Cyprus on 11 May: Declaration by the European Data Protection Authorities (pdf): "the version of the draft framework decision as presented by the German Presidency on 13 March 2007 does not present a solid and high data protection regime and has neither taken on board our European data protection Authorities' Opinion issued on 24 January 2006 nor the EP's opinion from May 18, 2006."

See also: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) damning report, "strongly advises the Council not to adopt the current proposals without significant improvements". Full-text of Opinion and Statewatch's analysis of the revised proposal See: Statewatch's Observatory on data protection in the EU with full documentation since 2005.

Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.

 Previous article

EU: The European Data Protection Authorities have produced a: Declaration, Common Position and Checklist on the "principle of availability"

Next article 

EU: Portuguese Council Presidency programme of meetings (pdf)

 

Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.

Report error

Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.

About | Contact | Privacy Policy