EU stakeholders such as Intel and Microsoft asked the European Parliament not to rush the adoption of the new data protection laws, “just to be done” with this task before the European elections and underlined the importance of defining the rules properly. Paul Nemitz, director for Fundamental Rights and Citizenship at DG Justice, however, insisted that the new rules should be adopted during the current legislature as they are vital in order to boost the economy.  He added that “those who keep being bigoted and wanting changes, they may carry the responsibility that we will not be able to come up with this boost for the economy.”

Commissioner Reding underlined, at the conference, that trust in the data-driven economy has been damaged due to the recent spying revelations and urged political leaders to show determination. “The Data Protection Regulation is the Union’s response to fear of surveillance”, she claimed adding that “the anti-Data Protection regulation lobbyists have run out of arguments”. The vote on the General Data Protection Regulation is currently scheduled to take place in the LIBE Committee on 21 October 2013.  LIBE seem determined to generate momentum by voting on 21 October 2013.  A vote would add pressure on Member States to agree to a position on the Regulation in order to start trilogue negotiations that could result in the adoption of the text before May 2014.

Source:  European Association for Search and Data Publishing

Editorial comment:  It is quite astonishing to assume that the new Data Protection Regulations will boost GDP in member states as much as by 4%, while transparency is being curtailed.   European credit information companies stated at a recent industry meeting that the new Data Protection regime would result in a loss of 30% in credit data.  The likely result of less available data for credit decisions would be less credit.  Perhaps we are entering the dawn of a credit-less cash society.