Forum: EU Data Protection Reform: Opportunities and Concerns

In 2012, the European Commission proposed a comprehensive reform of the EU's data protection rules. The proposed regulation has been surrounded by fierce controversy and has been the subject of frenzied lobbying by global corporations, industry groups, research centres and privacy campaigners on both sides of the Atlantic.

This Forum applies cool economic reasoning to this heated issue. What are the potential economic benefits of EU harmonisation? Will the proposed regulation negatively impact the competitiveness and innovation of European firms in the global marketplace? Or could it jeopardise attempts to protect privacy as a fundamental right in civil societies?

Articles in this Forum comprise:

+ Alexander Dix: The Commission's Data Protection Reform After Snowden's Summer

+ Gregor Thüsing and Johannes Traut: The Reform of European Data Protection Law: Harmonisation at Last?

+ Laurits Christensen and Federico Etro: Big Data, the Cloud and the EU Regulation on Data Protection

+ Susan Ariel Aaronson and Rob Maxim: Data Protection and Digital Trade in the Wake of the NSA Revelations

• Primary Source

Intereconomics: Archive http://archive.intereconomics.eu/years/

ESO: Background information: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Safeguarding privacy in a connected world: a European Data Protection Framework for the 21st century http://www.europeansources.info/record/communication-from-the-commission-to-the-european-parliament-the-council-the-european-economic-and-social-committee-and-the-committee-of-the-regions-safeguarding-privacy-in-a-connected-world-a-eu/

European Commission: DG Justice: Data Protection: Newsroom: Commission proposes a comprehensive reform of the data protection rules http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/data-protection/news/120125_en.htm

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