DPR agreement by Christmas still possible

The EU Commission indicates that the EU Parliament and Council could reach political agreement on the Data Protection Regulation before Christmas. The last trilogue negotiation will take place on 15 December.

Assuming an agreement is made, the text would then have to be checked by lawyers and policymakers to ensure it is consistent. Then, both Parliament and Council would need to ratify the final version. So while political agreement by Christmas represents massive progress it is not the end of the process.

It does mean that in the New Year we will know what the final content of the Data Protection Regulation text, so businesses can start to make preparations for implementing the text. The DMA will be at hand to assist members with this adjustment period.

Vera Jourova, European Commissioner for Justice, is responsible for the Regulation. She gave her latest view on the Regulation at an event in Brussels:

“The European Commission will support its implementation…Business in Europe will save 2.3 billion Euros in administrative costs. It will develop new opportunities. We expect to arrive at an agreement in the next two weeks and then prepare for implementation”

As a result of this building momentum the DMA has emailed the Prime Minister’s office and other senior Ministers highlighting our remaining concerns with the Data Protection Regulation. Our main worry is that fundamentally the text does not strike the right balance between the rights of business and the privacy interests of consumers, and is too prescriptive.

We have already received a response from the Prime Minister’s business advisor, Chris Hopkins. He assured us that the government was ‘working flat out’ to ensure ‘a decent outcome’ for UK businesses.