The conference, held in Brussels, was a review of the way in which the Data Protection Directive has been operating through its seven-year life. Four hundred and fifty people attended from all over the world.
Shelagh Gaskill, a partner with Masons, the firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, attended. She identified the main points made by Commissioner Frits Bolkestein in summing-up the Commission’s views at the end of the conference:
“The Directive has been implemented into national law in different ways by each of the Member States. There is no doubt that this lack of uniformity and harmonisation is having an effect on international trade, particularly with the USA.
“After huge efforts and enormous costs have been invested to achieve free movement for financial services round Europe, this effort and cost is being sabotaged by an un-harmonised data protection regime.”
Ultimately, the Commission would like to see mutual recognition, for example, if a data controller’s processing activities are lawful in its home state, then the lawfulness of that processing should be recognised by other Member States.
However, the Commission does not intend to do anything radical or sudden, or to produce a new Directive. Gaskill commented:
“Instead, the Commission is going to encourage Member States to amend their own laws to try to achieve clearer, simpler and more uniform rules throughout Europe and for transfers abroad to ease the burden on business.”
