EU Parliament locks-in poor mandate ahead of e-Privacy negotiations

Today, the European Parliament narrowly confirmed the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee’s mandate to begin trilogues on its e-Privacy report. Parliament sent its early signal to Council as they deliberate the impact assessment of the proposal.

BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: “While the Council thoroughly assesses this all-encompassing proposal with a fine-tooth comb, today, the European Parliament narrowly confirmed its intentions to rush ahead and lock-in its position. This position is bad for our digital economy, the digitalisation of industry and better regulation on the whole.”

BusinessEurope supports an update in this policy area. Yet, balance needs to be found between the right to respect private and family life, including the confidentiality of communications, with business opportunities and consumer trust. Technological innovation should be understood and fostered not held back by stringent rules. “As the European Parliament has chosen to complicate this policy area for business compliance, we look towards the Council to champion a balanced framework that upholds better regulation principles and ensures that businesses and users have full economic and societal benefits from innovative data processing.”

See more details in our public letter and position paper.