Claims that the EU data protection reforms are likely to be out of date before they are even passed have been given greater credence after it has emerged that the trilogue negotiations have hit yet another brick wall.
Talks between the EU Parliament, European Commission and the European Council have stalled following a major bust-up over consent and profiling, meaning the legislation is now unlikely to be implemented into UK law until mid-2018 at the earliest.
Even by Brussels standards, that is poor. The current legislation, passed in 1995, took five years to get the green light and they have already nearly reached that milestone with no end of the road in sight.
It seems that the chief architect of the reforms – former justice commissioner Viviane Reding – may well be forced to eat her own words. In January last year she claimed the reforms were well on track, insisting that getting them passed by the end of 2014 will be a “good result”.
However, as we approach the tail end of 2015, there is still little consensus, with both the Commission and Parliament fearing recent amendments will bring the standard of data protection to below that of the current 1995 Data Protection Directive.
Further discussions have been pushed back until October to allow all parties to consider a revised version of the text, and, although they still aim reach political agreement, a final version of the text remains elusive.
According to even the most optimistic estimates, the final version will not be agreed until Q1 2016 and the regulation will not complete its legislative passage until Q2 2016.
This timeframe may yet be postponed yet again, but it may well take EU president Jean-Claude Juncker to intervene. One thing is certain, however; any marketers who say they have not been given enough warning to get their own houses in order will be on very shaky ground.
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