EPP Group Hearing: Addressing the shortcomings of the GDPR

It has been five and a half years since the GDPR was concluded and three and a half years since it came into force. While the political discussion in the past years mainly focused on the need to implement the legislation in all Member States, the debate is now shifting towards the need to reassess its performance and to see how its shortcomings can be addressed.

Many questions are arising: questions around proper enforcement; questions around the lack of legal clarity; questions around GDPR rules that do not work well in practice (such as giving consent); questions around rules on data transfers and its impact on, for example, scientific research; questions around the bureaucratic burden, especially for SMEs; questions around anonymization techniques; questions around variations in GDPR implementation between the Member States; and questions whether the GDPR needs to be adjusted or supplemented to better suit emerging technologies. Many questions for which the policy solution is not always clear and never without consequences.

In order to prepare for the upcoming debates on these issues, the EPP Group is organising a hearing with experts from the field in order to exchange views on the question as to whether the GDPR has shortcomings and how those shortcomings need to be addressed.

The EPP Group Public Hearing on addressing the shortcomings of the GDPR will take place in the afternoon of 13 January 2022 from 14:30 to 16:30, in room JAN 2Q2 and via videoconference.