This December 15, the EU Commission, Parliament and the Council reached an agreement, via the so called "trilogue" meetings on EU data protection reform. The reform consists of two legal instruments:
- The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- The Data Protection Directive for the police and criminal justice sector.
One of the huge advantages of the GDPR is that it will introduce a harmonized legal framework in the entire EU, where previously we had a patchwork of national implementation of the Directive 95/46, with the result of the existence of a lot of specificities.
The other advantages quoted by the EU Commission are among others:
- For citizens: easier access to your own data, a right to data portability, a clarified "right to be forgotten", the right to be informed in case of data breach, etc.
- For businesses: one-stop-shop, European rules on European soil, risk-based approach, etc.
In principle, the final GDPR will be formally adopted by the European Parliament and Council in beginning of the of the year 2016 and will then enter into force two years thereafter.
