Statewatch Analysis:  The Proposed Data Protection Regulation: What has the Council agreed so far?

By Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex
Twitter: @StevePeers 8 December 2014

Introduction

Back in January 2012, the Commission proposed a new data protection Regulation that would replace the EU’s existing Directive on the subject. It also proposed a new Directive on data protection in the sphere of law enforcement, which would replace the current ‘Framework Decision’ on that subject.
Nearly three years later, there has been some gradual progress on discussing these proposals. The European Parliament (which has joint decision-making power on both proposals) adopted its positions back in the spring. For its part, the EU Council (which consists of Member States’ justice ministers) has been adopting its position on the proposed Regulation in several pieces. It has not yet adopted even part of its position on the proposed Directive.
For the benefit of those interested in the details of these developments, the following analysis presents a consolidated text of the three pieces of the proposed Regulation which the Council has agreed to date, including the parts of the preamble which have already been agreed. I have left intact the footnotes appearing in the agreed texts, which set out Member States’ comments.
The underline, italics and bold text indicate changes from the Commission proposal. I have added a short summary of the subject-matter of the Chapters and Articles in the main text which have not yet been agreed by the Council.
For detailed analyses of some parts of the texts agreed so far, see the links to the two blog posts.
The Council might always change its current position at a later point, and of course the final text of the new legislation will also depend on negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament.

Background documents :‘Public sector’ provisions, agreed by Dec. 2014 JHA Council:
Chapter IV, agreed by Oct. 2014 JHA Council: Rules on territorial scope, agreed by June 2014 JHA Council: Proposal from Commission:Position of European Parliament: Analysis of agreed territorial scope rules: Analysis of agreed ‘privacy seals’ rules:

SEE THE FULL CONSOLIDATED TEXT ANALYSIS (85 pages) HERE