Author: dsmooney

BEERG’s Director of Public Affairs Derek Mooney writes: The ongoing problems in reaching agreement on the content and detail of the General Data Protection Regulation were highlighted yesterday (Friday Dec 6th) at the EU Council’s meeting of Justice & Home Affairs Ministers.

Despite months of discussions among officials and experts from the member states; Ministers were still unable to reach a consensus on the detailed operation of the “one stop shop” principle central to the Regulation. The issue, just one of several still to be resolved, is now pushed back into the forthcoming Greek EU Presidency, due to run for the first six months of 2014.

After the meeting Commission Vice President and Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding seemed unable to hide her frustration at this further delay, saying

“…we have moved backwards… Instead of seeing the wood for the trees Ministers got bogged down in details with the solution that even after three months of discussions on the one-stop-shop principle there is still no workable solution on the table.”

Her comments contrast with those of the current Chair of the Council of Justice Ministers, Lithuanian Minister of Justice, Juozas Bernatonis who said:

“We prefer a strong agreement to a fast one, and must work to ensure a proper balance between business interests and fundamental rights of citizens.”

The EUObserver.com website later cited an EU diplomat as saying that Germany, with the support of Sweden and Belgium, was partly responsible for the delay adding that Berlin does not want the EU law to be any weaker than its domestic one. Other countries are said to have problems with the actual operation of the systems, believing it to be overcomplicated.

As currently drafted the “one stop shop” principle means that when activities of the undertaking in the EU takes place in more than one Member State, the obligation for cooperation with national data protection authority would be limited to the authority of the main establishment of that undertaking.

As we have previously reported here, Commissioner Reding has spent most of 2013 attempting to railroad the Data Protection Regulation through the EU with a minimum of discussion on the detail, particularly the unnecessary burdens and costs it will create for businesses, large and small, across the EU. Reding’s target was to get the Regulation passed before the current EU parliament and Commission mandates finish in mid-2014 – just in time to further her ambitions to become the next Commission President

While she had some success in speeding up its passage through the Justice & Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) in the European Parliament, her tactic has not worked with the member state governments. Both the Irish (Jan – June 2013) and Lithuanian (July – Dec 2103) Presidencies have focussed on the detailed operations of her proposal as worded.

Their insistence on fleshing out the implications of the draft Regulations many complex provisions have not only stymied her April 2014 timetable, but perhaps also her own personal ambitions? Could this account for her attack on those Ministers yesterday:

“I wonder how Ministers will face citizens back home, who are calling for stronger and uniform data protection rules in Europe? But fortunately this is not a question that I have to answer.”

With her Commissionership looking certain to end in 2014, it is likely a question she will soon not be around to answer.

ENDS 

Here is the text of a column by Tom Kelly in today’s Irish News  You can download the text of the column from here:   Tom Kelly Seanad

Abolition of the Senate is an insult to the proclamation guarantees – Tom Kelly

As a rule I am in favour of less politicians as they have long since abandoned their representative roles in exchange for a cosy coalition of partisan elites. It’s clear too that in all walks of life we are grossly over governed. Here in Northern Ireland we have one hundred and eight representatives for approximately 1.7 million people. To put that in context Greater Manchester has 2.68 million people.

Soon our grand Norn Iron council will debate the reform of local government which is less about reform and more about a sectarian carve up, but such a debate in a place so small, that only focuses on one aspect of government reform is unlikely to see any direct improvement in the provision of local services or indeed local accountability and transparency.

At the moment we have to drag public information on public expenditure from very unwilling and uncooperative public bodies and public representatives via the cumbersome and costly freedom of information process. Politicians who pay family members from the public purse somehow feel immune to public scrutiny. At each election a simple leaflet should be dropped through the door of every constituency telling us exactly what political nepotism costs us.

Yet there is a fashion for arrogance in Irish politics at the moment that transcends the border. Gifting a large majority to any single party is fraught with danger. The Irish electorate wisely avoided doing so for over thirty years. Ministers in such governments can become magisterial in their pronouncements and Prime Ministers become almost monarchical.

Such is the nature of the government currently blighting the Republic of Ireland. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has learned much from his one time nemesis, Bertie Ahern. He assiduously avoids media interface unless its at a jobs announcement, rubbing shoulders with a foreign dignitary or climbing Croagh Patrick with Trappatoni. He is a copious student of the sound byte over substance. In the run up to the last General election he got a spur of the moment ‘big idea’ -something not always greeted with enthusiasm by political handlers trying to win an election. Enda’s spurt of ill defined genius was that his incoming government would abolish Seanad Eireann.

Now it’s true that the Irish Senate thanks to the actions of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments has long since lost its mojo. Indeed both main parties and the Labour Party stuffed the place with aspirant political wannabes and electoral rejects. It’s also true that to have a second chamber with long outdated panels of election and a significant number of appointees at the partisan whim of a ‘dear’ leader is embarrassing and antiquated; yet for all its faults it is still better than no second chamber at all.

It’s amazing, even bizarre that as we approach the hundred anniversary of the Irish Proclamation with its high minded guarantees of ‘religious and civil liberty for all’- that an Irish government led by people who are torch- bearers to signatories of that Proclamation and political successors to the every creators of the first pluralist Irish senate; would dismantle an important part of a bicameral political system in a multi-cultural and diverse nation, that protects minority rights and those marginalised.

Activist and past member of the Seanad, Kathleen Clarke, wife of Thomas Clarke, first signatory to the Irish Proclamation must be turning in her grave. The Seanad for all its shortcomings gave Ireland two outstanding and unifying Presidents- Douglas Hyde and Mary Robinson. It possibly also gave the current incumbent, a life line that had he lost could have meant he only got to the Aras as a visitor.

Whether its been WB Yeats, David Norris, Feargal Quinn, Ivana Bacik, or even Pearse Doherty, the Seanad has given diverse and unrepresentative audiences an voice. In an all island context too, Ireland would have been a poorer place without the critical voices of senators Seamus Mallon, Maurice Hayes, Gordon Wilson, Sam Mcaughtery, Brid Rodgers and John Robb. A country is truly enriched when it can harness the independent minds and talents of all its people.

Perhaps more importantly we need checks and balances in a democracy. Imagine Charles Haughey’s Fianna Fáil with unbridled authority in Leinster House or what if there were no dissenting voices to the rise of a would be Mussolini such as Fine Gael’s own spectre – Eoin O’ Duffy? The Seanad needs to be reformed not abolished; because once its gone who will be left to apply the brakes to the threat of absolute majoritarian rule ?

TOM KELLY Bio