The European Commission is inviting citizens and stakeholders to provide their views on the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for a review and report on implementation for publication in the second quarter of 2020. This consultation, which is a requirement of the Better Regulation mechanism, will be open from 1 to 29 April.
The roadmap provided for consultation does not give much detail on the direction the Commission intends to take. It simply emphasises the fact that the objective of the report is to identify possible issues in the application of the GDPR, which has revolutionised the legislative framework relating to data around the world. This exercise, which is a requirement of Article 97 of the GDPR, will in particular cover the issue of international transfer of personal data to third countries (Chapter V of GDPR), with a special focus on existing adequacy decisions, and the cooperation and consistency mechanism between national data protection authorities (Chapter VII of GDPR).
The Commission states that it will summarise the input received in a synopsis report explaining how the input will be taken on board and, if applicable, why certain suggestions cannot be taken up. It emphasises the fact that it will seek the opinions of the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, national data protection authorities, the European Data Protection Board and the GDPR Multi-Stakeholder Group.
It should be noted that the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has already indicated that it believes that revision of the GDPR would be “premature” and that it would be more appropriate to move forward on the draft regulation that deals specifically with e-Privacy, i.e., the confidentiality of online communications (see EUROPE 12433/14).
Information on the consultation can be found via the following link: https://bit.ly/2USGOXt (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)