On March 12, 2014, the European Parliament approved in its plenary section the Commission’s data protection reform proposal.
The reform consists of two bills: a Regulation setting out a general EU framework for data protection and a Directive on protecting personal data processed for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences and related judicial activities.
The Regulation was passed with 621 votes in favor, 10 against and 22 abstentions, and the Directive with 371 votes in favor, 276 against and 30 abstentions.
The next step is the adoption of the proposals by the EU Council (ordinary legislative procedure -“co-decision”.)
The main scope of the proposed Regulation is the protection of individuals with regard to processing and free movement of personal data. One of the main traits of the legislation is that non-European companies will have to comply with European data protection law when they operate on the European market or they deal with the data of European citizens.
The press pack is available at http://europa…
Read the Text with the European Parliament’s amendments of 12 March 2014 to the EU Commission Proposal