A New Data Protection Development in The EU Judicial and Criminal Area

Abstract

The following article is dedicated to a new data protection regime in the European Union, in particular the Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and the Council on the protection of natural persons regarding processing of personal data by authorities aiming at prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of crime offences, including execution of criminal penalties. For this purpose, the authors look first at the data protection within the Prüm framework as well as at the relevant provisions of Lisbon Treaty. Тhe important cases of the European Court of Human Rights are analyzed. Whereas in 2014 EU Member states focused on the question whether or not to retain data, the 2016 conclusion was that in some aspects data retention is the most efficient measure to ensure national security, public safety and fighting across serious crimes. The terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels call to better equip security authorities. The EU legislature made significant progress on the Data Protection regime. The Directive (EU) 2016/680, the so called the ‘Police and Criminal Justice Directive’, repeals the Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA and will enter into force on 6 May 2018.

Legal Balance between the Human Rights Protection and the Effectiveness of the Criminal Investigation

“…ItS based on the principled positions set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679) [6]. In short, "what the Directive does is harmonize Member States' laws as regards the information exchange among judicial bodies and police" [7]. Directive (EU) 2016/680 regulates the legal protection of personal data of various individuals -"data subjects" involved in criminal proceedings as accused, suspects, convicted, witnesses, victims, accomplices, etc.…”

Nationalisms Versus Solidarity in Case of Eu Law and Security

“…Although it is precisely the national identity contained in primary EU law, we think it is good to develop more effective legal mechanisms, including at EU level, because this is one of the issues that is sensitive but relevant to the overall process of integration and its dynamically changing goals for shaping the EU. [2] At the same time, some of the root causes of the growing migration to Europe over the recent decades are political controversies and military conflicts in the Middle East, resulting in sophisticated forms of crimes such as terrorism, cybercrime, human trafficking, arms and drugs. In this sense, the migration crisis has led to a significant increase not only in criminal activities in the territory of the affected Member States but also in a cross-border organized crime.…”