EU’s Vestager Has “Reservations” About Online Privacy Proposals

Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice-president of the European Commission, said that she has “reservations” about a proposal from the Portuguese EU Presidency to unblock negotiations on the ePrivacy regulation.

Speaking to Lusa and other EU media in Brussels, Vestager said she was “very pleased” with Portugal’s efforts to speed up discussions within the Council on new rules that would give online platforms more responsibility for the content that appears on them, reported Euractiv.

On online privacy, Vestager, who has the Commission portfolio “A Europe Fit for the Digital Age,” said that she was following closely what was being proposed in the area of online privacy.

“We have some reservations about the Council agreement because it seems that part of that agreement [based on a proposal from Portugal] is not fully in line with the General Data Protection Regulation and for us it is very important that the two laws are aligned,” she said.

On the so-called “ePrivacy” legislative review, the Commission vice-president noted that the new rules are “relevant to, among other things, privacy issues in electronic messaging services … and so it is an important issue.”

Vestager stressed that “it would become a very confusing situation if there was a General Data Protection Regulation and ePrivacy legislation without the two laws being aligned.”

“They are not supposed to play the same role, but they should be aligned and we will work on that issue,” she stressed.

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