Council adopts common position on protection of personal data Directive
A common position on a proposed Directive on the protection of personal data was adopted by the Council of Ministers on 20 February 1995. The Directive will establish a clear and stable regulatory framework which is necessary to guarantee the free movement of personal data, while leaving individual EU countries room for manoeuvre in the way the Directive is implemented. The Directive will narrow divergence between national data protection laws to the extent necessary to remove obstacles to the free movement of personal data within the EU. It will prevent abuses of personal data and ensure that data subjects are informed of the existence of processing operations. Moreover, it proposes to establish common rules for those who collect, hold or transmit personal data as part of their economic or administrative activities or in the course of the activities of their association. There will be an obligation to collect data only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes which can be held only if it is relevant, accurate and up to date. The Directive will also establish the principle of fairness, so that collection of data should be as transparent as possible, giving individuals the option of whether to provide the information or not. The Directive will require all data processing to have a proper legal basis. The six legal grounds defined in the Directive will be consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interest of the data subject, or the balance between the legitimate interests of the people controlling the data, and the people on whom data is held (i.e. "data subjects"). Data subjects will be granted a number of important rights including the right of access to that data, the right to know where the data originated (if such information is available), the right to have inaccurate data rectified, a right of recourse in the event of unlawful processing and the right to withhold permission to use their data in certain circumstances (for example, individuals will have the right to opt-out, free of charge, from receiving direct marketing material without providing any specific reason). The Directive will also establish arrangements for monitoring by independent data supervisory authorities, acting in tandem with each other where necessary. The common position will be sent by the Council to Parliament for a second reading and adoption under the co-decision procedure.