Public administrations and data protection: an unstoppable europeanisation through fundamental fights

Abstract

This chapter deals with the Europeanisation of data protection by the civil service in Europe. With this goal in mind, the chapter analyses the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the processing of data by public authorities, highlighting the diminishing national diversity in the implementation of the GDPR. This increasing harmonisation is compatible with a flexible approach to data protection, that combines a risk-based approach with a fundamental-rights protection framework. This approach is essential since the evolution of data-driven technologies, the increasing relevance of open data, and the European Strategy for data, will require the EU to rethink data protection.