Numerous journalists contacted the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection on the occasion of the news about the "finalization of the Draft Law on Personal Data Protection", which was published yesterday by Tanjug, RTS, and a host of other media, requesting a commentary on the news and on the contents of the Draft.
In this regard, the Commissioner announces that he cannot verify the news, and journalists and the media should seek the information on whether the Draft is indeed finalized and the information on its content, from the Ministry of Justice, the Working Group of which was tasked to prepare the Draft Law. All the more so, since contradictory statements of the Minister of Justice and her assistant about the said Draft have been furnished to the public.
The Commissioner may provide a commentary only on the part of the news that, allegedly, the text of the Draft incorporated "the Commissioner's recommendations", and to deny it. Even though the Rules of Procedure of the Government stipulate it, the Draft has not been forwarded to the Commissioner for his opinion, which will probably be done subsequently. In any case, the Commissioner has seen neither any texts nor any working versions of the Draft, and accordingly, he has not provided any commentaries or recommendations.
Please be reminded that, several months ago, the Commissioner prepared and made available to the Government a complete new Model Law on Personal Data Protection, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the Government. The said Law gained the support and high estimates of representatives of the profession, and 17 specialized NGOs launched a special initiative requesting the Government to adopt the Law in an urgent procedure, assessing the Commissioner’s Model as a good basis for this. Unfortunately, this Model was literally lost somewhere in the Government’s administration, and the Commissioner forwarded it to the Prime Minister again three months ago. The Commissioner neither has any information about any reactions of the Government to the said activities of the Commissioner, nor does he have any information about whether the formulation "the Commissioner's accepted recommendations" refers to the said activities.
The Commissioner warns about serious detrimental effects, which may become even more detrimental, of the inconceivable delay in the adoption of this Law.
According to the decision establishing the Working Group of the Ministry of Justice, its task was to be completed by the end of 2013 at the latest. Underestimating or ignoring the fact that this deadline has long been exceeded, despite the awareness that the current normative framework is totally inadequate, is irresponsible and results in daily, often extremely robust violations of the right to personal data protection by the authorities themselves, which is particularly troubling. This big problem will escalate, since the EU General Data Protection Regulation will come into force quite soon, which implies standards, sanctions and consequences, which are hardly perceptible from our realistic perspective.
