Council agrees on draft data protection directive

The Council of justice and home affairs ministers has agreed its negotiating stance on the draft data protection directive.

This draft directive is aimed at protecting personal data processed for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal offences or the safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security.

The agreement reached enables the Luxembourg presidency to start discussions with the European Parliament also on this part of the data protection package. The other part of the package is the general data protection regulation on which talks with the Parliament have already started after the Council agreed its position on 15 June 2015. 

Contacts with the European Parliament to organise a first trilogue are underway, with the objective to reach an agreement on the whole data protection package by the end of the year.

“The objective of the draft directive is to ensure a high level of protection of personal data and to facilitate the exchange of personal data between law enforcement authorities within the European Union,” the Council of Justice Ministers said.

“The protection of persons in relation to the processing of their personal data is a fundamental right laid down in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and in the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union.”

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, in Luxembourg for the meeting, said the directive was just part of a whole package seeking to reach a balance between data protection and the what judicial authorities require to do their work.

“The package is required to ensure EU regulation are updated to the legal, political and economic realities of today,” Bonnici said.

The ministers also discussed the need to strengthen the fight against the spreading of racial and xenophobic messages, especially on social media.