On June 12, Belgium’s Parliament published a draft law on the “protection of natural persons with regard to processing of personal data.”
The draft – comprising 280 Articles – has three objectives:
- Legislate so-called “open clauses” of the General Data Protection Regulation, i. e. those clauses in the Regulation where EU Member States are free to legislate additional and complementary rules;
- Implement into Belgian law the provisions of the “Police Directive” (“Directive 2016/680 on the protection of natural persons with regard to processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA”); and
- Provide for various waivers and rules in relation to competent authorities and processing of personal data which are not within EU competence, for example data held by intelligence and security services.
The Government seeks urgent adoption of the text.