European Council accelerates the process for adopting the GDPR
The Council of the European Union announced that the process for adopting the GDPR will be accelerated. This is due to the the fact that the General Secretariat of the Council sent a Note requesting the Permanent Representatives Committee to use the so called “written procedure” in order to adopt the Council’s position. Initially a vote on the Council’s position was planned on 21st April 2016, when the next Justice and Home Affairs Council takes place. However, the Council has decided to accelerate the process for adoption by using the “written procedure”. Proceding this way is an exemption as it does not include public deliberation.
The mentioned Note states that the “need to send the Council’s position at first reading to the European Parliament during its April I plenary, will only be possible to adopt the Council’s position at first reading within this very short deadline via the written procedure, which would be launched on Thursday 7th April 2016 and would end on Friday 8th April 2016, at midday. Delegations’ attention is drawn to the exceptionally short duration of this written procedure.”
When looking on the next steps it is to say that once the Council’s position is adopted, it will then be sent to the European Parliament. The European Parliament will go on by acknowledging the receipt during the next plenary session taking place on 11-13 April 2016. Afterwards, the Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee will vote on a recommendation to Parliament regarding the Council’s position. These recommendation will then be used as a foundation for the Parliament’s adoption of the GDPR in one of the following plenary meetings.
