The Parliament hosted a presentation of a new Law on Personal Data Protection and important aspects of the Law jointly organized by the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee and the Personal Data Protection Service.

According to the Chair of the Committee, Mikheil Sarjveladze, a new Law that becomes effective as of today regulates personal data protection according to European standards.

“We may now audaciously declare that in terms of personal data protection and through the respective legal framework, Georgia is a country that regulates personal data protection issues according to European standards. It is a principal achievement of the country. At the same time, immense merit contributed to the EU integration process in a formal so in contextual terms since personal data protection is imperative in a modern era”, - he stated.

The Chief of the PDP Service, Lela Janashvili underlined that under the background when Georgia has gained the EU candidate status and progresses on the EU integration path, it is crucial to ensure the legal harmonization with the EU laws in the personal data protection sphere precisely.

“A new Law and its key aspects are directed to the extension of the rights of the data subject and increase of its guarantees. The Law formulates the rights of the data subject that are new in the Georgian legislation – the right to porting, data pseudonymization, de-personalization, profiling, an extension of the data processing principles, and establishment of the transparency and data safety aspects. Besides, the Law establishes significant legal institutions, such as the data protection officer, incident notification and data protection impact assessment mechanisms”.

According to her, the Law re-formulates the data processing in view of the direct marketing and the rules of the data processing upon the video and audio monitoring.

“It is noteworthy that the Law drastically increases the penalties for administrative offenses and determines the mitigating and aggravating factors thereof. In the capacity building context of the Personal Data Protection Service, the Law envisages the penalties for the failure to fulfill the mandatory assignments by the Service”, - she added.

The Secretary-General of the European Data Protection Supervisor, Leonardo Cervera Navas and the Head of the CoE Georgia Office, Natalia Voutova also addressed the attendees.

The Presentation was attended by the Members of Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers, diplomatic corps, international organizations and NGOs.