Data protection is high on the agenda of the European Commission, as is attested by the pending proposals for reforming the existing EU data protection framework (see earlier posts on this blog 'EU data protection reform' and 'EU data protection reform announced').
Last Monday, Commissioner Reding gave a speech on the topic at the Digital Enlightenment Forum in Luxembourg: 'Outdoing Huxley: Forging a high level of data protection for Europe in the brave new digital world'. She set out the Commission's aims in the field and explained the background to the proposals:
'Control of every movement, every word or every e-mail made for private
purposes is not compatible with Europe's fundamental values or our
common understanding of a free society. This is why the Union's Charter
of fundamental rights recognises both the right to private life in
Article 7 and the right to the protection of personal data in Article 8.
But this is not all: Article 16 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union also gives the European Union the legislative competence
to establish harmonised EU data protection laws that apply to the whole
continent and that make the right to data protection a reality. Data
protection is thus one of the rare fields where we have full coherence
between the fundamental right and the EU’s legislative competences of
the EU. This makes data protection a particularly powerful fundamental
right in the European Union, and the Commission’s proposals from 25
January have been designed to put this right into practice everywhere in
our internal market.'
Reding's speech replied to some points of criticism that the proposals encountered so far (e.g. from the European Data Protection Supervisor, see 'Critical look at the new data protection rules'). Regarding possible problems related to the enforcement of the proposed rules, she observed:
'In the interest of legal certainty and of fair competition, we have introduced a one-stop-shop system.
For the consumer, this means that
they will always turn to their national data protection authority when
they have a problem with a company – no matter where the company is
based. They will not have to labour through the process of contacting
authorities in different EU countries, riddled as it is with problems of
different languages or procedures. We make things easy for the
consumer.
The same un-bureaucratic one-stop-shop
exists for companies as well. They will only have to deal with one data
protection authority: in the country in which they have their main
establishment. This cuts costs while increasing legal certainty.'
On the point of possibly conflicting fundamental rights, such as the rights to privacy and data protection (incl. a 'right to be forgotten') v freedom of the press, Reding added:
'We are thus allowing Member States
to create rules to reconcile the right to the protection of personal
data with the rules governing freedom of expression.
This is certainly a difficult
balancing act, and one that can only be achieved in the knowledge of the
specific details of each individual case and the specific national
circumstances. In short, the right to be forgotten is not an absolute
right, it is a relative right. Like the general right to privacy, it is a
right that needs to be reconciled with other rights which are also
protected by the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.'
See the website of the Digital Enlightenment Forum for more information and the programme of the meeting.
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| Analogue enlightenment - Luminara di San Ranieri, Pisa, 16 June 2012 |
