Free flow of non-personal data in the European Union

Briefing 25-01-2019

One of the 16 key elements of the Commission’s digital single market strategy, presented in 2015, was a legislative proposal to facilitate the free flow of non-personal data. The mid-term review of the digital single market in 2017 identified the data economy as one of the top three priority areas in the second half of the strategy’s implementation. It found the European data economy could grow 18-fold, given favourable policy and legislative conditions, representing 4 % of EU GDP by 2020. On 13 September 2017, the Commission tabled a proposal for a regulation aimed at removing obstacles to the free movement of non-personal data across borders. It focuses on removing the geographical restrictions on data storage in the internal market, a move long demanded by stakeholders. In addition, the Commission proposes self-regulation to facilitate switching cloud-service-providers for professional users. Other, less widely agreed aspects, such as access rights and liability were left for future proposals. The European Parliament adopted the legislation on 3 October 2018 and it was approved by the Council of Ministers on 9 November. The regulation was signed by both institutions on 14 November and published in the Official Journal on 28 November. It will be directly applicable in all Member States from 18 June 2019. Fourth edition. The ‘EU Legislation in Progress’ briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure. Please note this document has been designed for on-line viewing.