DIGITALEUROPE welcomes the European Commission’s GDPR report

Today, the European Commission published its highly anticipated report on the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), two years after its application. DIGITALEUROPE welcomes the report’s findings and stresses the need for improved harmonisation in the GDPR implementation, alongside a stronger cooperation among the European Data Protection Board and the national data protection authorities.

Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said:

“The GDPR is a global milestone for data protection and privacy rules and is one of the strongest safeguards for consumers in the Digital Single Market. The fact that it has been inspiring legislation across the world is one of the greatest EU successes.

Yet, for the GDPR to be future-proof, we need better harmonisation of its provisions from country to country. We are still seeing fragmentation across Member States when applying the Regulation, which is preventing the creation of a predictable legal environment.

We call on the European Data Protection Board and the national data protection authorities to strengthen their collaboration and improve coordination in cross-border cases.”

DIGITALEUROPE welcomes the European Commission’s report, as it clearly highlights that, although the GDPR is heralded as a success, work still needs to be done with regards to its implementation and harmonisation across the EU.

We published our own GDPR report providing the digital industry’s perspective on the implementation of the GDPR. Our main recommendations are:

• We encourage the EU to further collaborate with international trading partners, ensuring global alignment with data protection rules for the benefit of global business and SME growth, by trading outside the EU.

• For the GDPR to be future-proof, modern interpretation and guidance are needed with regards to sectoral provisions, as this will be a critical component in Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

• The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) should strengthen their collaboration to ensure further alignment of the national derogations provided under the GDPR.

• The GDPR should strengthen the consistency mechanism, i.e. the process in place to guarantee coordinate decision-making in cross-border cases, in order to prevent a fragmented approach to enforcement and application.

For the past two years, DIGITALEUROPE has worked closely with the European Commission, the EDPB and DPAs, advocating for a modern interpretation of the GDPR and calling for a predictable and harmonised implementation. We look forward to continuing this collaboration in the coming years.