Data Protection — European Commission
Commission's First Report on the transposition of the Data
Protection Directive
Article 33 of the Directive requires the Commission to make
regular reports on the transposition of the Directive. This first
report has been postponed until now as a result of the delays in
the transposition in Member States. It is based on a broad
consultation exercise during 2002. The report comes to the
conclusion that the Directive has broadly achieved its aim of
ensuring strong protection for privacy while making it easier for
personal data to be moved around the EU. However, late
transposition by Member States and differences in the ways the
Directive is applied at national level have prevented Europe's
economy from getting the full benefit of the Directive. The report
proposes a work plan to reduce those differences, based on
cooperation among Member States and between Member States and the
Commission.
Technical analysis of the transposition in the Member States
The report is accompanied by a technical analysis that looks at
the transposition in Member States in more detail, analyses the
impact of the Directive on the internal market and in particular
examines the application of the Directive to the data processing
of image and sound personal data as required by Article 33 of the
Directive.
