During CPDP on January 24th a panel was discussing this topic:
Participants were:
Chair Michael Friedewald, Fraunhofer ISI (DE)
Moderator Walter van Holst, Vrijschrift / EDRi (NL)
Speakers Christian Geminn, University Kassel (DE); Karolina Mojzesowicz, European Commisssion, DG JUST (EU); Olivia Tambou, Université Paris-Dauphine (FR); Günther Leissler, Schoenherr Attorneys at Law (AT)
The abstract is:
Though the GDPR was intended to “harmonise the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons in respect of processing activities and to ensure the free flow of personal data between Member States” it provides a lot of leeway for Member States in its implementation, leaving significant room for derogations. This “margin of manoeuvre” creates the opportunity for the member states to specify vague concepts or to adapt the legal rules to the specific national context. There has been a vivid debate on how big the “margin of manoeuvre” actually is.
This panel is asking how far Member States have actually progressed to adapt their national regulatory framework, what general approaches they have chosen to abolish or amend existing data protection law, if they plan to make use of the opening clauses, how and why. The panel will also be asking about the rationale behind this activity and which issues are most intensively debated in this process. Finally the panel will discuss if the national implementation activities are likely to contribute to the harmonization process or if any new conflicts can be foreseen.
- Will the goal of European harmonization of data protection be reached or will national implementations lead to new fragmentation?
- How do different EU Member States approach the challenge of readying their national laws for the GDPR?
- What are the difficulties of implementing the GDPR within EU Member States?
The video of this panel is available
