EU – Baltic States, Internet, Latvia, Legislation, Technology

Edgars Rinkevics and Szabolc Takacs. Photo: flickr.com

The Foreign Minister said he was convinced that the right to personal data protection is amongst the fundamental rights of EU citizens also enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The EU’s new data protection legislation will establish uniform standards for personal data protection and strengthen the right for privacy online. The Latvian Presidency of the EU Council will seek to achieve an agreement at the Council on the Data Protection Regulation, Edgars Rinkevics emphasised.

Referring to the new principle included in the Regulation, namely, the right to be forgotten, which safeguards an individual’s rights in the digital environment. Edgars Rinkevics drew attention to an exception when these rights are not applicable. It has been clearly stated in the new Regulation that the right to be forgotten does not affect data processing for the purposes of archives, research, statistics or history, and serves public interests. This principle of the right to be forgotten should not apply to the data on the Holocaust as well as crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and Communists, the Foreign Minister emphasised.

The Regulation will reinforce the right to privacy online, which will in turn stimulate Europe’s digital economy. For individuals the new European data protection rules will increase the protection level of personal data: individuals will be ensured new rights such as the right to transferability and the right to be forgotten; in addition, an individual will have the right to know more from the administrator about the processing of his or her personal data. Thereby individuals will have greater control over their own data transferred to administrators.

The Regulation will establish ‘one-stop-shop’ mechanism for businesses and that, in case of transnational violations, will ensure that a violation is reviewed at the data protection authority of one Member State, while the decision taken will apply to all the branches of the company, including those located in other Member States. This will ensure uniform understanding of data protection and the application of data protection conditions.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an intergovernmental body whose purpose is to place political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance and research both nationally and internationally. Latvia has been a member of the Alliance since 2004.