The proposed General Data Protection Regulation is currently under discussion by the first of three working parties of the Council of the European Union, according to an internal document exchanged between the Presidency and the Working Party on Data Protection and Exchange of Information (DAPIX) on 22 June 2012.
"Discussions of amendments to the proposed Regulation will continue to be carried out by the working parties of the Council and negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament are scheduled to begin by the end of 2012", Jochen Müller, spokesperson of the Council, told DataGuidance.
The first working party of the Council is currently proposing to amend Article 1 – 10, 80(a) and 83, in response to the DAPIX meetings of 23-24 February and 14-15 March 2012. In particular, the proposed amendments focus on clarifying the definitions in the proposed Regulation, narrowing the scope of the articles and addressing the comments submitted by Member States.
"This is the discussion and proposal carried out by the lowest level of the Council and all amendments are still subject to further discussion", said Müller.
The internal document points out that Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia have indicated their preference of a Directive over a Regulation and '[a]lmost all delegations are of the opinion that the proposed regulation contains too many cases of delegated acts'.
Once the EU Council and Parliament reach an agreement on the text of the Regulation in two successive readings, the Regulation will become binding and directly applicable in all Member States. It will then enter into force 20 days following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
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