Data Protection Day 2014 (January 28) aims to raise awareness around what kind of data is collected about individuals, how it is used and why.
In marking this year’s Data Protection Day, Vice-President Viviane Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, is calling for “a new data protection compact for Europe.” Reding continues to focus on EU data protection reform, with the objective of the swift adoption of the current draft Regulation and believes it should be “full speed on data protection in 2014.” If adopted, the European Commission proposals will serve as a comprehensive reform of the EU 1995 Data Protection Directive, with the aim of strengthening data privacy and thereby boosting Europe’s digital economy.
To become law, the draft Regulation must be adopted by the European Parliament, which is expected to adopt the proposals in first reading in the April 2014 plenary session, the Council of the EU and the European Council. This is followed by Jan Philipp Albrecht, the member (MEP) in charge of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE Committee), who has said that the current timetable targets scoping a mandate for negotiations during June with inter-institutional negotiations taking place in July.
So perhaps it will be full speed ahead for 2014 after all…