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?