The Biggest Reform in the Area of Personal Data Protection Discussed in Sofia

The biggest European data protection reform is the main topic of the 29^th of January programme of the Bulgarian Presidency. The new EU regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation, comes into force in May. Its purpose is to better protect the privacy of citizens on the Internet and give them more rights to determine how their personal data will be used.

The Regulation enters into force on 25 May 2018 for all Member States, replacing the previous directive, which is more than two decades old.

This regulation is exceptionally important for both consumers and companies which operate with personal data. These are companies like Facebook, Google, telecoms, financial corporations, and so on. These companies will be subject to much stricter sanctions and will have to bear greater responsibility for their users.

Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society said that higher consumer confidence means new opportunities for business innovations. Enterprises will also have easier access to the Union market as the current 28 national laws will be replaced by a clear legal framework.

Ventzislav Karadzhov, Chair of Bulgaria’s Personal Data Protection Commission said that technology has changed both the economy and the social life, at the same time facilitating the free movement of goods and services, but has also changed the way we all already perceive the need to protect personal data. Solving these issues is at the heart of the reform.