La protezione dei dati nel settore della cooperazione giudiziaria e di polizia in materia penale alla luce della direttiva (UE) 2016/680: frammentazione ed incertezze applicative

Abstract

Data protection in the context of law enforcement requires specific rules because of the particular nature of the field. However, such rules have proliferated, especially as a result of the problems of the EU institutions in the regulation of the area, which were caused by the pre-Lisbon pillar-based system in the EU. The consequences are fragmentation of the legal framework, uncertainty on the rules to apply and a weaker protection for data subjects. Directive (EU) 2016/680 does not solve such issues, since it leaves prior rules unaffected and it gives rise to problems regarding the delimitation between its scope and the scope of the GDPR. While waiting for a consistent and broadly applicable framework, it’s important to achieve a common interpretation of some key concepts, at least to mitigate the fragmentation.