If
you want to cheer yourself up, just surf over to the European
Commission’s website and read all about the amazing benefits that the impending
data protection reform package will deliver.
Wow,
it’s impressive.
Benefits
for citizens and businesses – particularly small and medium sized businesses.
Citizens will be put back in control of their own data. The “right to be
forgotten” gets another airing. Consent cannot be assumed. Saying nothing is
not the same as saying yes. Businesses will save €2.3 billion a year by dealing
with one law, not 28.
If
we are to believe the hype, "It is a golden opportunity. By fostering a Digital
Single Market, we can create up to €250 billion in additional growth, hundreds
of thousands of new jobs, and a vibrant knowledge-based society."
So
what’s the problem? Why the delay? Who’s opposing this wonderful measure?
This
is where the Commission’s website fails to deliver.
Nowhere is there even a summary of the principle issues that have yet to be
resolved, with an explanation about why Member States continue to have
significant concerns. For that sort of information, you need to dive deep into the
footnotes of the DAPIX documents that occasionally appear online.
This
is a lost opportunity – if you expect the Commission to be even-handed in its
reporting of the issue, that is.
What
we read is a one sided summary of the issue, full of stock paragraphs that
could so easily be inserted into the speech of any politician / public official
tasked with delivering a homily on the benefits of the reform package.
Journalists
that want to cover the potential deficiencies of the reform package have to
work a lot harder if they are to file a decent report. The lack of an alternative
narrative is unsettling. If the package were so good, why is the gestation
period proving to be so difficult?
Perhaps
the Commission’s website is not the place to go for impartial news about
legislative proposals. Perhaps it exists purely to promote the Commission’s
aims and aspirations.
But
if it wishes to rise about the political debate, it should be bold
enough to acknowledge that every proposal has its detractors, and that their views could also be made available to European citizens, perhaps through hyperlinks
from the Commission’s website, in order that citizens can determine for
themselves whether public policymakers are taking appropriate decisions.
Source:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-3802_en.htm
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