Annexes to COM(2016)213 - Communication to EP on the Council's position on a Directive on protection of personal data with regard to prevent, investigate, detect or prosecut criminal offences - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2016)213 - Communication to EP on the Council's position on a Directive on protection of personal data with regard to prevent, ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2016)213  |
| date | April 11, 2016 |
The Commission supports this agreement since it is in keeping with the objectives of the Commission proposal.
The agreement maintains the overall objective to ensure a high level of protection of personal data in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters and to facilitate exchanges of personal data between Member States' police and judicial authorities, by applying harmonised rules also to data processing operations at the domestic level. It preserves the application of the general data protection principles to police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, while respecting the specific nature of these fields.
The agreement clarifies the material scope of the Directive by specifying that the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties include the "safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security". The agreement also includes certain private entities in the notion of 'competent authorities' but such possibility is strictly limited to entities entrusted by national law to perform public authority or public powers for the purposes of the Directive. Given the practice in Member States to outsource to the private sector some defined activities previously conducted only by the State (e.g. privately run prisons) such possibility introduces a degree of flexibility in the Directive allowing it to adjust to a changing environment.
The agreement also provides for minimum harmonised criteria and conditions on possible limitations to the general rules. This concerns, in particular, the rights of individuals to be informed when police and judicial authorities handle or access their data. Such limitations are necessary for the effective prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences. It also establishes specific rules to cover the specific nature of law enforcement activities, including a distinction between different categories of data subjects whose rights may vary (such as witnesses and suspects).
The agreement strengthens the risk based approach by providing for the new obligation of the controller to carry out, in certain circumstances, a data protection impact assessment while maintaining the obligations related to data protection by design and by default and to the designation of a data protection officer.
The agreement sets outs the rules for international transfers to third countries by authorities competent for the purposes of the Directive to such authorities, while providing also for the possibility of transfers to private bodies, subject to a number of specific conditions.
4. Conclusion
The Commission supports the results of the inter-institutional negotiations and can therefore accept the Council's position at first reading.