Discussion on draft legislative amendments prepared by the Office of Personal Data Protection Inspector was held at Hotel Rooms Tbilisi, on April 14, 2016. The representatives of public agencies, non-governmental and international organizations attended the discussion. Council of Europe experts Winfried Veil and Claire Gayrel presented their opinions on the draft amendments.

The meeting was opened by Personal Data Protection Inspector, Mrs. Tamar Kaldani and Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Mr. Cristian Urse. In their welcome speeches, Mrs. Kaldani and Mr. Urse underlined once more international obligations foreseen by the Association Agenda.

The draft legislative amendments involve several principal changes to the Georgian Law on Personal Data Protection. According to the amendments the scope of the law will be extended, the audio monitoring will be subject to special regulations; sanctions for large-scale data breaches will be increased. Draft legislation amendments foresee the creation of the so called white and black lists of organizations which have high standards of data protection and of organizations permanently and roughly violating data protection rules.

According to the amendments the Inspector will be entitled to request informational security inspection of electronic control system and two stage monitoring system over covert investigational activities.

In order to ensure better protection of data subjects’ rights and to increase efficiency of the Inspector’s Office the rules related to dealing with citizens’ complaints and inspections will be modified, the time frames of proceedings and procedures of investigations will be also altered.

Representatives of public agencies and non-governmental organizations asked questions and shared their opinions related to the particular regulations. Special attention was paid to rules related to disclosure of special categories of personal data and extension of the scope of the law. Content of the draft legislative amendments was clarified by representatives of the Inspector’s Office and opinions of meeting attendees were also discussed with Experts.

“The aim of the prepared legislative amendments is to harmonize Georgian Legislation with the European standards and to eliminate shortcomings revealed in practice. The work carried out by our team was very complex and the draft legislative amendments will be presented to the Parliament of Georgia along with the opinions of the experts” – Noted Inspector.

Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Mr. Cristian Urse in his speech underlined the obligations taken by Georgia on the basis of Association Agenda. “This meeting is the part of the Council of Europe and European Union joint project aiming to strengthen personal data protection. The legislative amendments were prepared by the Office of the Inspector and Council of Europe with the assistance of its experts prepared the opinions on it” – mentioned Mr. Urse.

The event was supported by the joint project of Council of Europe and European Union for Strengthening Data Protection.