Brussels, 23/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Sixty-six NGOs active in the area of cyber-freedom addressed a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday 21 April on the current reform of data protection, Politico.eu reports on 23 April.
These 66 organisations, which include Privacy International, EDRI, BEUC and FREE (Fundamental Rights European Experts Group), express their concern at the changes to the data protection reform package being made in the Council and at the risk of a lowering of the level of protection compared with what is offered by the current European directive which dates from 1995. They call on the Juncker Commission to make maintaining the same level of data protection as the 1995 directive a “red line”.
In March of this year, EU justice ministers approved a partial general approach on some aspects of the general regulation on data protection, including on the one-stop-shop mechanism and on the broad thrust. Several aspects were of concern to some delegations, for instance, the legitimate interest clauses that would allow companies to make use of users' data and notions of multi-purpose consent that could make it possible for a company to re-use personal data without having to seek the agreement of the consumer concerned.
Austria and France expressed difficulties over certain aspects of the compromise but the aim of these delegations is to be able to begin trialogue negotiations with the European Parliament as quickly as possible to try to bring improvements to the text that is on the table. The goal of the Latvian Presidency is to agree a general approach by June on both the regulation and the directive relating to the police and justice sector. Trialogues with the Parliament are expected to begin this summer. (Solenn Paulic)