EU General Data Protection Regulation: Agreement reached on final version

On Tuesday evening, the negotiators of the EU Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission reached agreement on a final version of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. These “trilogue negotiations”, which lasted six months, have now been concluded with a final draft version of the proposed Regulation. The final version is expected to be published in January/February.

With the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs now having given its consent to the final version this morning as well (the press release can be accessed here), we expect that the final adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation will take place in the first quarter of next year. This requires the formal confirmation of the draft by the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers, which will probably meet in March 2016 to vote on the final version.

After final adoption of the Regulation, the EU General Data Protection Regulation will come into force in all EU Member States two years later. Uniform data protection regulations are therefore expected to apply across the entire EU from the beginning of 2018.

Additional information of the key points of the reform can be found here: EU General Data Protection Regulation: EU ministers agree Europe-wide standards 

The current draft version of 15 December 2015 can be accessed here.