The European Commission It has set the main objective of slimming some of its most important laws. In recent weeks, the executive arm of the European Union It has proposed to cut the obligations that weigh on companies in areas that go from the emission of greenhouse fluorinated gases.
Under the pretext of “reduce the bureaucracy unnecessary “, the government of Ursula von der Leyen It also now points to (RGPD), demanding a simplification of the regulations that, according to dozens of organizations in defense of the digital rightscan sit a “dangerous” precedent of deregulation that harms citizens.
In a broad package of legislative proposals, Brussels demand to modify the law that guarantees the security of the Personal data of European citizens. Specifically, he asks to change article 30, section 5, which establishes that companies with less than 250 employees are exempt from conserving transparent records about the treatment they make of user data, unless “may mean a risk to rights and freedoms” and “is not occasional.”
Exemption for 99% of companies
The reformulation, on the other hand, expands that exemption to companies with less than 750 employeesexcept for “high risk” cases. 99% of European businesses fall under that category, according to data from the European Commission. In addition, the proposal also eliminates the mention of the “occasional” treatment, which opens the door that large companies that process data in a regular basis can avoid the obligation to document their data processing.
With this, Brussels intends to reduce the administrative burden for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and give them greater flexibility to choose the most appropriate method to comply with the other items of the regulations.
“Weakens our rights”
However, civil society organizations denounce that the proposed amendment is not a technical clarification, but a structural change that will damage the Data protection of Europeans. “Eliminating this not only weakens security, legal certainty and the effective exercise of our rights, but also opens the door to a broader deregulation of the EU digital normative code,” warns European Digital Rights (EDRI), An international group of NGOs, academics and defenders of digital rights that represents almost 50 European organizations. “It does not clarify the obligations; redefines them in a way that undermines transparency, harms its fulfillment and further diverts the power of people and supervisory authorities.”
The second cabinet From the Leyenwith a marked conservative accent and in office since last December, it is allowing the demands of the private sector to begin to permeate in laws already approved democratically by the European Parliament. “The commission sells that the GDPR reduces the Competitivenesswhich is a problem for companies, and that mantra without any evidence has become a open bar, “he explains Itxaso Domínguez de OlazábalEdri’s policy advisor, in statements to El Periódico, who considers that the change “encourages irresponsible companies.” “All this responds to the pressure of the operators of Telecommunications annoying because the current law prevents them from accessing more user data without their consent. “
Green light with nuances
He European Data Protection Committee (CEPD) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (SEPD) issued a statement on Wednesday in which they approve the simplification of the GDPR provided that it does not violate the right to the privacyalthough they ask for clarifications about why the threshold of companies exempt has not been set in those with less than 500 employees. “We celebrate that the proposed modifications to simplify and clarify the obligation to maintain a treatment registration are specific and limited, and do not affect the fundamental principles or other RGPD obligations,” said Wojciech Wiewiórowski, president of the CEPD.
On July 16, the EU commissioner of justice, Michael McGrathwill meet with sector executives, commercial groups and civil society to discuss a simplification of the law that facilitates compliance and will be presented at the end of the year.
Even so, Edri denounces that the commission tries to modify the law through a buse package “without democratic supervision (…) or impact assessment.” Civil organizations warn that this change threatens not only to weaken data protection in Europa spine of other pioneer laws such as the one, but also in other countries that were inspired by the example of the RGPD to promote similar laws. “Instead of consolidating the European technological model based on ethics and digital rights, the commission has embraced the framework of the new Trump administration,” he explains Judith Membrives and LlorensDigital Policies Analyst of LaFede.cat. Edri believes that this is the first of many legislative changes. “They are testing the land and if we give in to the companies they will return to the load,” says Domínguez de Olazábal.
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