IATE Term of the Week: Data Governance Act (DGA)

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At the end of the year 2020, the European Commission initiated a reworking of the data regulation inside the European Union. The European Commissioner and Danish politician Margrethe Vestager drafted the first proposals of the Data Governance Act and presented them on 25 November 2020. She has also been, since 2019, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission. On 21 December 2021, the European Commission and the European Parliament came to a provisional agreement. The various steps were completed in March 2022 and the Data Governance Act will then be applicable in 15 months, that is to say, in the summer of 2023.

What is exactly the Data Governance Act?

The Data Governance Act, also referred as DGA or European Data Governance, is one of the first and most accomplished initiatives of the European Union on data managing. It takes part of the European Strategy for data measures and will have different aims from the Open Data Directive presented in 2019.

The term data includes all digital information or element, whether it is personal or professional, that can be used for different matters. Revising the regulations on European data can have several objectives and positive consequences for both private and institutional sectors.

What are the main objectives of the DGA?

One of the first aims of boosting the data sharing mechanisms is, without doubt, a commercial aim. Facilitating the access to data can strengthen the European economy, increase trust in all of the services as well as create new collaborations allowed by a better circulation of all of the needed information. It can also be used as a database management system to identify the market failures in some specific domains. If the European data and knowledge are easily accessible for the involved bodies and institutions, new products and services will soon see the light of day.

The European Union has implemented a very specific data-sharing strategy in order to reuse the already existing information at a wider level, across departments and countries. The creation of new data is not a priority in this new legislative procedure. The focus is set on a better use of what the European Union already has in its possession. Moreover, this new law will help to increase the security of data-sharing, since the former procedures on the respect of personal and professional data will not be affected. The fundamental rights on personal data, previously signed, will remain untouched. In an increasingly digitalised world, in which almost all transactions and decisions are taken through a computer, the use of data has become an essential tool to cooperate and share information at all levels.

This new legislative procedure can be considered as an assistance to help all of the countries from the European Union to collaborate on commercial and intellectual matters in a more efficient way. The European data will be safely reused, so that its full potential can be reached.

“Data altruism” in the European Union can lead to an increased cooperation of all the Member countries in all fields!


References:

European Commission. 2022. Margrethe Vestager | European Commission. [ONLINE] Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024/vestager_en. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

European Council. 2022. Promoting data sharing: presidency reaches deal with Parliament on Data Governance Act – Consilium. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/11/30/promoting-data-sharing-presidency-reaches-deal-with-parliament-on-data-governance-act/. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

EU Data Governance Act: What privacy professionals need to know . 2022. EU Data Governance Act: What privacy professionals need to know . [ONLINE] Available at: https://iapp.org/news/a/the-eu-data-governance-act-what-privacy-professionals-need-to-know/. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

EUR-Lex – 52020PC0767 – EN – EUR-Lex. 2022. EUR-Lex – 52020PC0767 – EN – EUR-Lex. [ONLINE] Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52020PC0767. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

European Parliament. 2022. Legislative train schedule | European Parliament. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-a-europe-fit-for-the-digital-age/file-data-governance-act. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

Procedure File: 2020/0340(COD) | Legislative Observatory | European Parliament. 2022. Procedure File: 2020/0340(COD) | Legislative Observatory | European Parliament. [ONLINE] Available at: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=en&reference=SEC(2020)0405. [Accessed 01 April 2022].

www.euractiv.com. 2022. Data governance: new EU law for data-sharing adopted – EURACTIV.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/data-governance-new-eu-law-for-data-sharing-adopted/. [Accessed 01 April 2022].


Written by Cécile Mayeres

She holds a Master’s degree in Translation and Cross-Cultural Communication with a specialization in European mobility. She now does a traineeship in Communication at the Terminology Coordination Unit