Brussels, 06/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - “We were almost there. Today, (…) we have moved backwards. (…) It was a disappointing day”, said Commissioner Viviane Reding on Friday 6 December upon leaving the justice ministers' meeting in Brussels to discuss proposals for reforming data protection rules. The divergences encountered related to the “one-stop-shop” principle, the organisation of the complaints and decision-making between the various national protection authorities, and on which the Luxembourg commissioner had hoped a political agreement would be reached during the JHA Council in October.
What has happened in the meantime? According to sources close to the commissioner, the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council put a stop to any progress and raised questions with ministers that killed off any positive momentum. On the Council side, things were not as categorical. Although some recognise that a breakthrough on this principle seemed close in October this year, working groups were aware of all the practical difficulties that such a principle raised. One source said: “Mrs Reding must also agree that, on some aspects, her proposal is not valid”.
The ministerial meeting rapidly became a nightmare for Reding. At the beginning of the discussion, the director general for the Council legal services denounced the inconsistencies and the “disastrous nature” of the one-stop-shop as set out in the proposal. According to the Council, that principle, instead of facilitating the life of Europeans and businesses when a data processing problem arises, would ultimately only complicate matters by creating several one-stop-shops between authorities where the person is resident and the relevant authorities. The proposal, the director writes, would only serve the interests of the data protection authorities and businesses established in several member states and would be a disservice to the interests of citizens whose fundamental rights could be violated.
Reding's services did not only discover this opinion on Friday but found it somewhat difficult to cope with it. “The one-stop-shop is a major pillar of reform. Why was this not brought up sooner? Reform will soon be two-years old”, some sources said ironically. According to the Commission, it has never been a question of granting exclusive competence, mainly in the taking of corrective measures, to the authorities of the country where the incriminated business has its head office, but in consultation with the other national authorities. This consultation mechanism was at the core of the discussions in October, with France at the time proposing an interim mechanism of co-decision involving all the relevant authorities concerned in a case - a proposal supported in particular by Italy. As Austria had pointed out at the time, it had nonetheless been deemed beneficial that the Council, in an opinion, should examine questions of proximity with the citizens and the ways to involve the local authority in the decision-making process, the idea being to take into account the concern felt by citizens for data concerning them, in their own language.
The text has now arrived and, on Friday, a series of delegations considered it necessary to continue discussions before any decision-making. Although this approach can be beneficial for some countries such as the United Kingdom or Hungary, which are not very keen on the reform and which have sought to gain a directive rather than a regulation, Ireland has stated its disappointment. “We are disappointed as uncertainty has come about since October”, said Alan Shatter, Justice Minister, who pointed out that giving exclusive powers and authority to the local authorities would be tantamount to killing off the principle of a one-stop-shop.
The dossier will be taken up by the Greek Presidency, upon which Reding now pins all her hopes. The commissioner has not despaired of the fact that an agreement on reform may come about before electoral campaigning begins, although that possibility does seem to be growing more distant. The informal meeting planned for end January in Athens may even, she says, serve to clean up the obstacles that have recently come about, obstacles that the commissioner considers to be of an eminently “political” nature. (SP/transl.jl)