On Wednesday 26 October, members of the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) debated the draft report by Pilar del Castillo (EPP, Spanish) on the ‘Data Act’ (see EUROPE 13021/18).
In detail, Ms del Castillo first insisted on the need to clarify which data fall within the scope of the text. She would like to see data in raw or pre-processed form included in the scope.
On the other hand, data derived or deduced after calculation by software would not be included in the scope, in order to preserve business secrecy. Similarly, data generated by ‘prototype’ products not yet on the market should also be excluded.
Furthermore, in her view, the obligation to share data with public authorities in the event of major events or crises should also be linked to remuneration for companies, at least up to the level of the costs incurred to process and share these data.
Finally, adjustments will still need to be made on several aspects, including the issue of interoperability.
For other MEPs, like Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, Finnish), although they consider that the text is on the “right track”, work is required on several aspects.
“The exemptions will not be easy to define, especially on the issue of company size. We also need to work on the issue of data types and we should spend a lot of time on the issue of data equipment, format and companies included”, she said. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)