directive

By: Sophie Noya

On May 22-25, EU citizens elected Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) for a five-year term.  Several of the key parliamentary decision-makers on the data protection reform have been reelected, including the strongest supporters of far-reaching privacy rights such as the rapporteur, German Green Member Jan Philipp Albrecht, and Dutch Liberal Sophia In’t Veld.  More than half of the European Parliament (“EP”) has been renewed, which may give an advantage to experienced MEPs who will try to play a dominant role.

Although the three main parliamentary groups (center-right EPP, center-left Socialists and center Liberals) continue to control two thirds of the seats in the EP, Eurosceptic and nationalist parties gained significant ground at the expense of mainstream parties.  These anti-EU parties – which could represent up to 25% of the Assembly – are composed of heterogeneous political formations.  This Parliament will therefore be more fragmented than the previous one.  In practice, social priorities will become more important and MEPs will likely strengthen their support to citizens’ rights in order to demonstrate that they drew the lessons from the elections outcome.Continue Reading EU Parliamentary Elections: What Impact on the EU Data Protection Reform?

The Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee of the European Parliament (EP)– the EP’s lead committee for the European Commission’s legislative proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation to replace the current EU Data Protection Directive–was supposed to vote at the end of April on the proposed amendments

Continue Reading European Parliament’s Lead Committee for the Proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation Postpones Vote