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EU DATA PROTECTION: Documents on proposals for data protection under the Lisbon Treaty
01 July 2010
EU DATA PROTECTION: Under the Stockholm Programme and provisions of the Lisbon Treaty the European Commission is due to present this year: 1) Communication on a new legal framework for the protection of personal data after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty; 2) New comprehensive legal framework for data protection; 3) Recommendation to authorise the negotiation of a personal data protection agreement for law enforcement purposes with the USA and 4) Communication on Privacy and trust in Digital Europe: ensuring citizens’ confidence in new services. As background to the first and second proposal the Commission has published an in-depth study:
New Challenges to Data Protection Study - Final Report (pdf)
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The purpose of the study was to identify the challenges for the protection of personal data produced by current social and technical phenomena such as: the Internet; globalisation; the increasing ubiquity of personal data and personal data collection; the increasing power and capacity of computers and other data-processing devices; special new technologies such as RFID, biometrics, face (etc.) recognition, etc.; increased surveillance (and “dataveillance”); and increased uses of personal data for purposes for which they were not originally collected, in particular in relation to national security and the fight against organised crime and terrorism."
See also:
Working Paper No 1: The challenges to European data protection laws and principles (pdf);
Working Paper 2 - Data protection laws in the EU (pdf),
Comparative Chart of National Laws (link) and
Country Report on Greece (pdf)
It might be thought that the promised comprehensive review of the 1995 EU Directive on data protection under proposals 1 & 2 - which will take several years to complete - would precede any over-arching agreement with the USA on data protection and information exchange covering any crime however minor - however, the Commission has already adopted its negotiating position in order to start talks with the USA with a view to a quick agreement being put in place.