Protección de datos: el Gobierno británico quiere que su regulación se haga mediante Directiva para "incrementar la flexibilidad"

La Unión Europea quiere modificar la actual regulación de protección de datos, impidiendo las particularidades que hoy subsisten en las distintas legislaciones de los países comunitarios. Ahora bien, se discute si se debería regular mediante directiva (que necesita transposición y, por tanto, intervención de las autoridades de los países miembros para adaptar la regulación a sus especiales circunstancias) o reglamento (de aplicación directa y, por tanto, no precisa de intervención por parte de las autoridades comunitarias). El Reino Unido no quiere un reglamento porque no tendría en cuenta "debidamente la tradición y la práctica nacionales".

Changes to the EU data protection regime should come in the form of a new Directive rather than in the form of a Regulation in order to enable that flexibility, it said. "We are of the view that the proposed general Regulation should be a Directive in order to provide greater member state flexibility to implement the measures – a Regulation would allow the EU to prescribe rules without necessarily giving due regard to national tradition and practice," the UK said, according to a leaked file (170-page / 606KB PDF) from the Council of Ministers published by civil liberties group Statewatch. Currently EU member states have slightly different data protection laws from one another. This is as a consequence of the way those countries have implemented the 1995 Data Protection Directive into national laws. The wording of EU Directives does not have to be precisely copied into national laws. The Commission has described the current data protection regime in the EU as fragmented and outdated and has pressed for reforms that bring the rules up-to-date with advancements in technology.

vía UK submits concerns over proposed data protection reforms.