Council reaches partial general agreement on the One-Stop-Shop

The "One-Stop-Shop" will apply only in important cross-border cases, the Council of the European Union announced on 13 March. It said that EU Justice Ministers have reached a partial general approach on specific issues in the EU DP draft Regulation – namely the chapters and the recitals concerning the One-Stop-Shop mechanism (chapters VI and VII) as well as the chapter and the recitals relating to the principles for protecting personal data (chapter II).

The lead supervisory authority should decide whether it will deal with a case concerned within the One-Stop-Shop mechanism or whether the supervisory authority which informed it should deal with the case at local level. Controversial cases would be referred to the European Data Protection Board, which would be empowered to adopt legally binding decisions in disputes between supervisory authorities.

Dzintars Rasnačs, Latvian Minister for Justice and President of the Council, said: "The approach we have reached on new data protection rules creates protection on citizens' rights more effectively. Data protection is like a rough diamond being polished and finally starting to shine and hopefully in June it will reach its full potential."

The Justice and Home Affairs Council hopes to reach agreement on the remaining issues in its next meeting 15 June. However, the Council says that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The UK and Ireland have reservations on the current plans for the One-Stop-Shop arrangement.

Read more about this topic in PL&B UK Report, to be published 20 March.