On personal data – alignment within May 2018

Three decisions concerning the use of personal data were published in the Official Gazette of the EU last 4 May 2016. Namely, the new Regulation and two Directives, that is that concerning the processing of personal information during police and judicial activities, and that regarding the ‘Personal name record’ (i.e. the ‘Pnr’), that is the collection of information on all passengers flying in the sky of the EU. In any event, the main new developments concern the Regulation, which came into force last 25 May, introducing uniform and valid data protection legislation throughout all Europe. Member States will have two years of time, that is within May 2018, in order to align their own domestic laws and regulations. Upon expiry of the two-year period, the Regulation will be directly applicable in the EU Member States, without any need for any implementation whatsoever. Consequently, the domestic laws and regulations will be fully replaced by the Regulation, save for those domestic provisions which do not overlap with any such Regulation. To get an idea it has been estimated that out of the 186 articles of the Italian Data Protection Code only a few dozen will remain in force.