SoylentNews

Progress Made as EU Aims to Get New Data Protection Laws ASAP

posted by janrinok on Thursday July 16 2015, @08:25PM   

Arthur T Knackerbracket suggests a story from The Register:

The second round of negotiations on the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) saw real movement on Tuesday, according to negotiators.

Sources familiar with the discussions told El Reg that a tentative political agreement has been reached already on Chapter 5 and Article 3. These two elements focus specifically on territorial scope and international data transfers.

According to the text, any company processing data of a European citizen in the European Union is subject to EU law and any transfer of data outside the EU must meet certain adequacy standards. This is more or less what is already enshrined in the current 1995 data protection laws, so it is a logical place to start the so-called trialogue talks. Broad political agreement means that "all we really need to do now is nail down the exact wording," said a source.

Getting consensus between the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council of national justice ministers often proves difficult. But against the external backdrop of the Snowden revelations, reform of the EU-US safe harbour agreement and challenges to jurisdiction by Microsoft and Facebook, there has been a notable push to get the GDPR onto the law books as soon as possible. Negotiators have set themselves an ambitious deadline - the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in October.

A Data Protection Directive, which covers law enforcement agencies (as opposed to the regulation which applies to companies), is also on the table and Parliamentary representatives have said they want the two laws to be treated as a package.

---

Original Submission

• Re:Trialogue (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday July 16 2015, @09:07PM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday July 16 2015, @09:07PM (#210173) Journal

  http://ec.europa.eu/codecision/stepbystep/glossary_en.htm [europa.eu]

  Trilogue / Trialogue (FR): informal tripartite meetings attended by representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Owing to the ad-hoc nature of such contacts, no “standard” format of representation has been laid down, The level and range of attendance, the content and the purpose of trilogues may vary from very technical discussions (involving staff level of the three administrations) to very political discussions (involving Ministers and Commissioners). They may address issues of planning and timetable or go into detail on any particular substantial issue.

  However, as a general rule, they involve the rapporteur (accompanied where necessary by shadow rapporteurs from other political groups), the chairperson of COREPER I or the relevant Council working party assisted by the General Secretariat of the Council and representatives of the Commission (usually the expert in charge of the dossier and his or her direct superior assisted by the Commission’s Secretariat-General and Legal Service).

  The purpose of these contacts is to get agreement on a package of amendments acceptable to the Council and the European Parliament. The Commission’s endorsement is particularly important, in view of the fact that, if it opposes an amendment which the European Parliament wants to adopt, the Council will have to act unanimously to accept that amendment. Any agreement in trilogues is informal and "ad referendum" and will have to be approved by the formal procedures applicable within each of the three institutions.

  --
  [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Informative=1, Touché=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Informative' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4