EU member states have only eleven days left to prepare for the introduction of the general data protection regulation (GDPR). By Monday 14 May, only four of the twenty eight member states had taken the necessary national measures to comply with requirements, European Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová announced at the European Data Protection Days in Berlin.
The four countries are Austria and Germany, which were ready by the end of January (see EUROPE 11946), along with Slovakia and Sweden. The remaining member states are at differing stages in the procedure, Jourová said, with many close to the final phase.
The delays in implementation at national level are increasingly worrying businesses (see EUROPE 11950 and 12014), which are finalising their preparations by gathering the agreement of their users to the new rules of use put in place by the regulation.
The issue will be discussed on Tuesday at the inter-parliamentary meeting organised by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee on implementation of the legislative package on data protection. The Commission is standing ready to assist laggard member states to be prepared for 25 May. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)