On August 26, lawmakers in Greece voted to approve the implementation of partner legislation to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into national law, one month after being put on notice by the European Commission (EC).
The Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive was passed following a fast-tracked plenary session after the EC on July 25 threatened significant fines against the country for not yet incorporating the rule. Penalties threatened included a minimum lump sum of €1.31 million (U.S. $1.45 million) and a daily fine of approximately €5,287 (U.S. $5,870) from the deadline of implementation to the date of full compliance.
The Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive entered force in May 2016 and was required to be transposed into the national law of each EU country by May 6, 2018. The directive, packaged with the GDPR, “protects citizens’ fundamental right to data protection whenever personal data is used by criminal law enforcement authorities for law enforcement purposes.”
Spain, also put on notice in July, has yet to implement the directive. The country was threatened with stiffer penalties: a lump sum of €5.29 million (U.S. $5.87 million) and daily fines of €21,321 (U.S. $23,671).
In its notice, the EC said the lack of implementation “creates a different level of protection of peoples’ rights and freedoms and hampers data exchanges between Greece and Spain on one side and other Member States who transposed the Directive on the other side.”
