European Commission issues GDPR guidance to EU member states

Just four months before the deadline for enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the European Commission (EC) has issued guidance on the sweeping legislation for EU countries.

From a press release issued last week: “The Commission wants to ensure that all actors — EU governments, national data protection authorities, companies and citizens — are ready for its entry into force on 25 May 2018.” Only Germany and Austria are fully in compliance as of this date

As a key component of its push to help countries prepare, the EC launched a fairly extensive website outlining details of the regulation, as well as providing history and resources. A section targeted to businesses and organizations includes information on how to apply the rules, legal grounds for processing data, obligations and enforcement.

The EC said it will provide 1.7 million euros to fund data protection authorities and train data protection professionals. It has also earmarked an additional 2 million euros to support those authorities to reach businesses, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises (SME).