Milan, 09/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - A small but crucial step in the reform of the protection of personal data was taken in Milan on Wednesday 9 July. At an informal meeting, the justice ministers of the countries of the EU moved closer in their positions on the inclusion of the public sector (on the same footing as the private sector) in the regulation presented by Viviane Reding in January 2012, and paved the way for a flexibility clause to benefit national governments wishing to establish higher protection standards.
Although they have received far less media attention than others, these points on the inclusion of the public sector and the margin given to the member states, which will be able to decide to put their own national legislations above European law, constituted one of the major concerns of Germany, which was calling for differentiated treatment between the public and private sectors.
With this “flexibility clause” in the bag, Berlin should no longer have any major objections to the reform put forward recently by the Luxembourg Commissioner Viviane Reding. “This point was the stumbling block and this brings the Germans on board”, a source commented on Wednesday, after the fairly brief discussion of the EU ministers on the subject.
This flexibility clause is also expected to have the effect of isolating the British, who are still in favour of a broader directive, rather than a regulation to reform data protection, the same source added. In any case, it was the major goal of Thomas de Maizière, the German home affairs minister, who is responsible for the dossier. “In Germany, we have the highest degree of data protection and our aim is to maintain that level. We have always fought in favour of a high level of protection; this has not always been understood”, he explained.
This clause, which will allow the member states to go further in their protection standards, will directly affect the way the public authorities deal with citizens' data in the sectors of health care, pensions, administration and taxation, the German minister added. In Germany, these are sectors in which protection is higher than elsewhere, he went on to explain.
For France, the conclusion of the dossier is approaching. “But we have to say that we made considerable progress under the Greek Presidency”, said Christiane Taubira, reports AFP. The minister pointed out that, in June, 28 countries of the EU agreed on the transfer of data to third countries.
However, there is still one considerable point to be resolved, said the minister: that of the single window approach, over which the Commission and the Council have gone to war. “I hope that we will be able to reach an agreement by the end of the Italian Presidency”, she added. The single window is one of the key provisions of the reform and organises the way disputes between citizens and the business are resolved. At the moment, the challenge hinges on how the responsibilities will be divided up between the authorities concerned, be they national or European. (SP)