On 24 June 2020, the European Commission published a review of its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), assessing the application of the Regulation after its entry into force in 2018.

In total, the Commission draws a positive evaluation, emphasizing the GDPR’s contribution to the rights to data protection and data privacy. The review’s key findings state that due to the GDPR, EU citizens have gained more power and awareness of their enforceable rights, such as the rights of access, rectification, and erasure. Furthermore, data protection authorities are making stronger use of their corrective powers, too.

According to the report, further enforcement of the GDPR, the provisions of sufficient resources for national data protection authorities (DPAs), and discrepancies between different national legal frameworks and national procedural laws remain key challenges to the application of the GDPR. Hence, in order to further support DPAs, the Commission recommends setting up a Support Pool of Experts within the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).