The European Commission published, on Monday 25 July, its report on the application and functioning of the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive.
In broad terms, the report underlines firstly that the directive ensures “a harmonised and high level of protection of the rights of persons involved in criminal proceedings” and provides “a coherent legal framework for data processing by law enforcement agencies and competent authorities” .
“Today’s report confirms that the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive is a cornerstone of the EU’s security policy”, commented the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
However, while the report highlights that the increased level of trust and security in data exchange has facilitated cross-border cooperation, it also notes that several Member States have still not fully transposed the Directive into national law. Several infringement procedures have been launched by the Commission in this respect.
“I encourage those Member States that have not yet transposed the Directive to do so as soon as possible so that citizens benefit from the highest level of protection”, Mr Reynders insisted.
Furthermore, the text points to recurrent problems of lack of resources that should be allocated to certain national data protection authorities.
Finally, the report contains a list of actions developed by the Commission, the Member States and the competent authorities in order to allow the full exploitation of the Directive, among others, by increasing the powers and resources of the national authorities or by issuing further guidance on the interpretation of the text by the European Data Protection Board.
The next edition of this report will be published in 2026.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/2qd (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)