Data Protection in the Third Pillar: In the Aftermath of the ECJ Decision on PNR Data and the Data Retention Directive

Abstract The data protection directive regulated the issue of processing of personal data, excluding from its field of application activities that relate to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. The terrorist attacks of 2001 and the bombings in Madrid and London have given a new impulse to political interest in police cooperation throughout the European Union and its regulation in order to ensure greater efficiency. As a response, the European Commission presented in October 2005 a Draft Framework Decision on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters. Numerous drafts have been prepared thereafter, but no consensus has been yet reached (August 2007). In our paper we will present the current developments at European level for the regulation of the issue of data protection in the third pillar and we will analyse the main principles that should be applied in order to ensure a coherent data protection framework, which will pay due respect to the fundamental rights of the citizens, and especially the right to privacy and data protection on one hand, and the safeguards for an effective law enforcement system on the other.