Council of the EU

On January 5, 2021, the Council of the European Union released a new, draft version of the ePrivacy Regulation, which is meant to replace the ePrivacy Directive.  The European Commission approved a first draft of the ePrivacy Regulation in January 2017.  The draft regulation has since then been under discussion in the Council.

On January 1, 2021, Portugal took over the presidency of the Council for six months.  Ahead of the next meeting of the Council’s working party responsible for the draft ePrivacy Regulation, the Portuguese Presidency issued a revised version of the draft regulation.  This is the 14th draft version of the ePrivacy Regulation (including the European Commission’s first draft).

Once approved, the ePrivacy Regulation will set out requirements and limitations for publicly available electronic communications service providers (“service providers”) processing data of, or accessing devices belonging to, natural and legal persons “who are in the [European] Union” (“end-user”).  The regulation aims to safeguard the privacy of the end-users, the confidentiality of their communications, and the integrity of their devices.  These requirements and limitations will apply uniformly in all EU Member States.  However, EU Member States have the power to restrict the scope of these requirements and limitations where this is a “necessary, appropriate and proportionate measure in a democratic society to safeguard one or more of the general public interests.”
Continue Reading Council of the EU Released a (New) Draft of the ePrivacy Regulation

Today, the EU institutions reached the long-awaited political agreement on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will fundamentally change the EU privacy landscape (for the Commission press release see here and the European Parliament press release here).  Almost four years after the publication of the legislative proposal for…
Continue Reading Political Agreement on the EU General Data Protection Regulation – Start of a New EU Privacy Era?

In today’s Justice and Home Affairs (“JHA”) Council meeting (see here), the Council of Ministers of the EU agreed the Council’s long-awaited common approach on a revised text of the proposed General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). The Presidency of the Council of the EU had published a compromise text…
Continue Reading Council Agrees Common Approach on EU General Data Protection Regulation – Negotiations With Parliament and Commission on Final Text To Begin Imminently

On June 6, 2014, the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union (the “Council”), representing individual EU Member States, reached a common position on certain important aspects of the draft European Data Protection Regulation (the “Regulation”).  Specifically, the Council reached an agreement on rules governing transfers of personal data outside the EU, set out in Chapter V of the Regulation, and on rules relating to its territorial scope.  A number of key elements of the proposal remain under review, however, with agreement not expected for some time.  And, the text of the proposed Regulation still has to be negotiated and agreed in its entirety by both the Council and the European Parliament, and Chapter V (as well as other provisions) may undergo further changes in the process.

While Parliament’s position is now set in stone (following a plenary vote in March 2014), the Council is still in the process of defining its position on key aspects of the Regulation.  According to unofficial sources, the Italian Presidency of the Council (which will take over in July) will aim to agree the remaining Chapters of the Regulation by the end of 2014.  It is unclear whether any negotiations on the text between the Council and Parliament will take place before then.Continue Reading EU Justice Ministers Reach A Common Position on Aspects of the Draft EDPR