Que­sti­on Fia­la (17.5528): Agree­ment with the EU to coor­di­na­te the appli­ca­ti­on of the appli­ca­ble data pro­tec­tion law

Sub­mit­ted Text (11÷29÷17):

The EU Regu­la­ti­on 2016/679 on the pro­tec­tion of indi­vi­du­als with regard to the pro­ce­s­sing of per­so­nal data will enter into force in May 2018. The refer­red Moti­on 16.3752 Ins­tructs the Fede­ral Coun­cil to con­clude an agree­ment with the EU to nego­tia­te the coor­di­na­ti­on of the appli­ca­ti­on of the appli­ca­ble data pro­tec­tion law.

• What is the sta­tus of the­se negotiations?
• When can we expect an agree­ment, espe­ci­al­ly sin­ce EU legis­la­ti­on brings gre­at uncer­tain­ties for Swiss companies?

Respon­se of the Fede­ral Coun­cil dated 4.12.2017:

In its respon­se of Novem­ber 9, 2016, the Fede­ral Coun­cil has Moti­on 16.3752 declared its wil­ling­ness to work in due cour­se with the EU to seek dis­cus­sion. The Fede­ral Coun­cil did not con­sider it useful to cont­act the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on befo­re the Fede­ral Assem­bly began dis­cus­sing the bill to revi­se data pro­tec­tion law. The rea­lizati­on that Switz­er­land is endea­voring to ensu­re good data pro­tec­tion with the new law should be of inte­rest to the EU pro­ba­b­ly be an important fac­tor in the dis­cus­sions. For this rea­son, it is important for the Fede­ral Coun­cil to first be able to assess whe­ther and how Switz­er­land is car­ry­ing out its work in the con­text of the total revi­si­on of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act. First explo­ra­to­ry talks with the EU could be con­duc­ted at the begin­ning of 2018. Howe­ver, it would be pre­ma­tu­re to draw up a time­ta­ble for a pos­si­ble agree­ment at this stage.