The European Commission Positively Assesses Georgian Data Protection Reform

2015-05-08 12:08:25

Today, on May 8, the European Commission issued Third Progress Report on the implementation of Visa Liberalization Action Plan (VLAP) by Georgia.

The Report positively assesses Georgian personal data protection reform and outlines that all data protection obligations under Visa Liberalization Action Plan were successfully fulfilled.

The Report states that Georgia is satisfactorily implementing the legislation on the protection of personal data in the public and private sectors, the independent data protection supervisory authority functions effectively, trainings were conducted and awareness on data protection was raised.

The document was prepared on the basis of progress reports submitted by Georgia and findings of the EU assessment mission. The European Union assessment mission evaluating implementation of Visa Liberalization Action Plan benchmarks regarding data protection was conducted on February 23-27, 2015. During the mission EU experts got familiar with the functions and activities of the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector and the specifics of its work. The experts had series of meetings with the representatives of public agencies and private companies.

The EU-Georgia visa dialogue process is in progress since 2012 and it aims to liberalize visa regime with European Union.

The Third Progress Report by the European Commission can be found here.