Data protection: the EU institutions’ battle over data processing vs individual rights’, Paul De Hert and Vagelis Papakonstantinou

This chapter investigates the role of EU institutions in the process of developing and changing EU data protection rules. In the wake of 9/11, the large-scale processing of data for security purposes became a priority for law enforcement authorities throughout Europe—and the safeguarding of an individual’s right to data protection a key concern for all those defending a rights-based approach. Security-oriented actors and those defending data protection interests have struggled to find compromise in the EU institutions, meaning that the core of the policy is still to be settled. Since the Treaty of Lisbon and the inclusion of data protection as a fundamental right, the necessity to solve the tension between large-scale data processing for security purposes and the right of individuals to data protection has become more pressing.