Personal Data Protection Agency of North Macedonia, Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency and German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) are organising kick-off meeting to present Twinning project “Support to the Implementation of the Modernised Data Protection Legal Framework” which will be held in DoubleTree by Hilton Skopje, Blvd. ASNOM no.17, Skopje on 30 September 2021 from 9.30 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. During the event, high government officials, representatives from the EU delegation in North Macedonia, project leaders from Croatia, North Macedonia and Germany, as well as experts from North Macedonian, Croatian and German data protection authorities will present project objectives, specific project purpose, results to be achieved and activities to be implemented.
The objectives of this project are to improve the protection of fundamental rights and the national system for personal data protection in the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the standards of the European Union acquis, as well as to improve the performance of the Personal Data Protection Agency for the implementation of the modernized data protection framework. Also, on this occasion, the new Law on Personal Data Protection (Official Gazette of Republic of North Macedonia n.42/20), which transposes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be promoted. The new Law on Personal Data Protection, as well as GDPR, introduces significant changes: it introduces new definitions and concepts, imposes new obligations for data controllers and processors and enhances data subject’s rights.
According to the Law on Personal Data Protection adopted on February 2020, controllers and processors had the obligation to align their business processes with the Law within 18 months from the day of entry into force of this Law, which means by the end of August 2021. Having this in mind, we will also use this opportunity to put emphasis on the obligations of the controllers/processors, to inform citizens about their rights and to raise awareness on the importance of personal data protection among the general public.
Furthermore, we are expecting an insightful presentation on the results of the survey conducted with data controllers in North Macedonia https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/personal-data-protection-survey, and a fruitful panel discussion with data protection experts from North Macedonia, Croatia and Germany.
We live in a data-driven world. Governments, data protection authorities, regulators, private sector, public authorities, civil society and citizens need to cooperate to achieve an appropriate balance that respects the fundamental rights of individuals and at the same time empowers the growth of innovative digital business models. The right to personal data protection is a fundamental human right, but it is also an economic necessity – without consumers’ trust in the way their data is handled there can be no sustainable growth of the European data-driven economy. This is why in the EU data protection is a central component of digital policies and strategies.
