Читать книгу Privacy and Data Protection based on the GDPR - Leo Besemer - Страница 30

The GDPR excludes “processing of personal data (…) by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences”.¹¹ At the time the Treaty of Lisbon was prepared, however, it was acknowledged that specific rules on the protection of personal data and the free movement of personal data in the fields of judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation “might prove necessary because of the specific nature of those fields”.

This led to a separate directive, providing the basis for a harmonized national law: “Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data”. Directive 2016/680 was published the same day as the GDPR. It aims to protect the rights and freedoms of natural persons regarding the processing of their personal data on the same principles as the GDPR does, at the same time ensuring a high level of data protection while improving cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other serious crime.

The choice for an EU directive to complement the GDPR in this area is a logical one, because this subject is outside the scope of the EU’s legal powers. As shown in Sub-section 1.2.1 a directive allows Member States a certain level of flexibility while incorporating the requirements into their respective national laws, yet still achieving a level of harmonization.