The internal market and consumer protection committee (IMCO) is preparing to vote on 4 June on the report prepared by Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (EPP, Sweden) on the free movement of non-personal data. According to an exchange of views organised on 17 May, the different political groups appear to be determined to limit the derogations as much as possible and to include the public sector.
It should be recalled that the draft regulation presented in September 2017 aims to facilitate the free flow of non-personal data. It stipulates that data localisation for storage and processing purposes cannot be limited to the territory of a single member state, except for public security reasons.
So far, the IMCO committee has put 20 compromise amendments on the table. In contrast to the Council vote, these support the inclusion of the public sector in the scope of the regulation (recital 7), whilst explaining that this will not oblige private and/or public companies to outsource.
They also retain the idea of limiting the derogations to the principle of free movement to imperative public security reasons (article 4). In response to the concerns from the industry committee and the EFDD group, they clarify that the localisation requirements maintained should be published on the European Commission website in its working languages.
With regard to the link between the new regulation and the one on data protection - GDPR (article 2), they specify that the new rules will not affect the GDPR. They are also proposing that in cases involving mixed data, the GDPR applies to personal data and the regulation on the free movement of data to non-personal data.
On the question of the timeframe applicable, Ms Corazza Bildt explained that the idea is for the regulation to apply six months after entry into force. The deadline on the codes of conduct outline the data sharing conditions - which providers will have to make available to professional users before the conclusion of the contract - is, however, more flexible. They should be adopted a year after the publication of the data and apply two years after the said publication. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)