On 15 June, Ministers in the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council sealed a general approach on the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Council is now ready for talks with the Parliament, and the first trialogue meeting will take place on 24 June. The GSMA and the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) welcomed the general approach approved by the JHA Council with a view to adopt the GDPR by the end of the year under the Luxembourg Presidency. Data Protection and privacy are fundamental to building trust and confidence and to driving the uptake of new digital services by Europe’s citizens.
The GSMA and ETNO strongly support the horizontal approach taken by the GDPR, which will help create a level playing field between all players irrespective of their sector or geographic location. It is important that consumers are able to enjoy consistent privacy standards and experiences regardless of the technologies, infrastructure, business models and data flows involved.
A level playing field will be crucial to achieving a digital single market. The GSMA and ETNO are calling for the EU institutions to urgently address the inconsistency between the proposed GDPR and the existing ePrivacy Directive in the context of the ongoing negotiations. Legislators have a unique opportunity to repeal the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58EC through targeted amendments to the GDPR rather than embarking on a lengthy review process at a later stage. DG CONNECT has already mandated a study on the relationship between both legislative instruments and the changes that would be necessary in the ePrivacy Directive once the Regulation is adopted. This study, which is likely to be published in June 2015, is likely to propose withdrawal of the ePrivacy Directive only once the GDPR is adopted.
The GSMA appreciates the Commission’s efforts to assess the inconsistencies between the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR, and believes that the ongoing reform of the EU data protection framework provides a timely and appropriate opportunity to resolve the current patchwork of regulation, which compromises the effective and consistent protection of consumers across the digital ecosystem.