The candidate countries seeking EU membership include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Türkiye.

In November last year, the EU Commission reported on the progress of these countries aspiring to become EU members(1). This evaluation also included their level of data protection legislation, although this chapter is only a small part of the overall assessment of the level of democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights. The key reference points for privacy include alignment with the GDPR, and the Law Enforcement Directive, signing and ratifying the European Convention on Human Rights and following the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as enforcement of data laws and the independence of the data protection authority. For the overall picture of fundamental rights and the rule of law, the assessors also look at issues as varied as the fight against corruption or domestic processing of war crime cases.