PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA The right to the protection of personal data is a fundamental right compliance with which is an important objective for the European Union. It is enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) which provides, in Article 8, that: ‘1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her. 2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified. 3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.’ That fundamental right is, moreover, closely connected with the right to respect for private and family life enshrined in Article 7 of the Charter. The right to the protection of personal data is also laid down in Article 16(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which succeeded Article 286 EC in that respect. As regards secondary legislation, the European Community has, since the mid-1990s, developed a range of instruments to ensure the protection of personal data. Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, 1 adopted on the basis of Article 100a EC, is the Union’s principal legal instrument in this area. It lays down the general rules on the lawfulness of the processing of
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Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31); consolidated version of 20.11.2003, repealed as of 25 May 2018 (see footnote 5):
July 2020
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