MEPs copy-pasting amendments from US lobbyists

By Nikolaj Nielsen

BRUSSELS – A handful of MEPs have copy-pasted amendments made by giant US-based IT companies directly into the EU’s new data protection law.

US lobbying efforts on the EU’s data protection package have intensified (Photo: christoph_aigner)

Among the names cited by the London-based NGO, Privacy International, in a report out on Monday (11 February) is British Conservative deputy Malcolm Harbour, who chairs the parliament’s internal market committee and who acts as his group’s shadow rapporteur on the data bill.

The advocacy group said that he “proposed amendments with over 25 percent of content copied directly from lobby papers.”

In one instance, the American Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business advocate in Brussels, and the European Banking Federation (EBF), suggested that creating new data protection supervisors within companies should be optional and not mandatory, as in the original EU draft.

Online bookstore Amazon and auction site Ebay wanted to delete a paragraph in the EU draft that would prevent firms from using people’s data if their consent was not properly established.

Amazon also wanted to change a provision aimed at protecting EU data stored on non-EU clouds.

Harbour’s tabled amendments reflect the positions of all three.

For his part, Harbour told this website by email: “The fact that businesses involved in using and protecting personal data agree with amendments is not a reason to discount them, or to try to suggest that those who agree with their approach are worthy of censure.”

He noted that he held meetings with consumer groups and government representatives as well as industry.

“The amendments I tabled were ones that I considered would improve the directive, especially in terms of data protection, control, and transparency for data subjects,” he added.

Other names cited by Privacy International include British Conservative MEPs Sajjad Karim and Giles Chichester.

But they are not the only ones.

EUobserver has learned that deputies from the Socialist, Liberals and centre-right EPP groups have also taken up industry ideas word for word.

One MEP copied an amendment from the EBF and Eurofinas, a pro-consumer credit provider lobby.

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