In the absence of new legislation, the European Commission could launch infringement procedures against member states that do not respect the principle of the free flow of data. Commissioner Marianne Thyssen made this suggestion during an exchange of views with the European Parliament on Thursday 19 January.
Data circulation is a sensitive subject in the EU, as borne out by the current discussions in the three European institutions. It should be pointed out that last December, 16 member states wrote to the Commission to ask it to legislate on data localisation, whilst others, such as France, expressed their clear opposition. The same situation arose when the Commission’s Vice President Ansip informed journalists in the middle of last year, that a regulation would be published, only to backtrack on what shape this initiative would take, under pressure from the Junker Cabinet.
A document from the former Slovak Presidency of the Council explains, “The directive on e-commerce (2000/31/EC) applies the country of origin principle to information society services. Nevertheless, member states are authorised to impose restrictions on where data is localised”. According to the impact study carried out by the Commission, there are currently no fewer than 50 restrictions leading to data localisation. The Slovak discussion document adds “Justifications for these restrictions vary, with certain countries invoking safety, security or even legal reasons”.
Addressing the European Parliament, however, Commissioner Thyssen pointed out that some of these restrictions could not be justified and in a specific reference to the “Services” directive indicated, “The free movement of data is enshrined in primary and secondary law” before adding, “The Commission is ready to launch a structured dialogue with the member states and other stakeholders in an effort to evaluate the justification and proportionality of the data localisation measures. It will then launch infringement procedures to tackle unjustified localisation measures”.
During the debate that followed, the majority of MEPs that spoke (only MEPs from the EPP, S&D and ALDE) supported the principle of free movement data. Dita Charanzova (ALDE, Czech Republic) even supported the idea of publishing a “regulation” on the subject. Andreas Schwab called for more incentives for businesses to use by clarifying the question of data ownership. Andrejs Mamikins MEP (S&D, Latvia) welcomed the public consultation on the free movement of data launched on 10 January by the Commission, including the package on the data based economy. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)