Eu Data Protection Law - Current State And Future Perspectives

On 25 January 2012 the EC proposed a comprehensive reform of the EC's 1995 data protection rules. Although the core principles of the Directive 95/46 were still valid, it could no longer meet the challenges of rapid technological developments and globalization, and as a result required revision. Two years later (12 March, 2014) the progress on EU data protection reform is said to be irreversible following European Parliament vote that gave its strong backing to the architecture and the fundamental principles of the Commission's data protection reform proposals, on both the General Data Protection Regulation and on the Data Protection Directive in the law enforcement context. To become law the proposed Regulation has to be adopted by the Council of Ministers using the "ordinary legislative procedure" (co-decision). This article gives some insight into the EU data protection reform package highlighting a number of main changes in comparison to the current legislative framework. That is why the text is structured in the following way: 1) privacy and data protection - history and current state of law; 2) the choice of new legislative instruments; 3) reinforcement of the rights of data subjects; 4) enhancement of the responsibilities of controllers and processors; 5) ensuring protection of personal data by police and criminal justice authorities.