The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday ordered Spain to pay a fine of €15 million for failing to transpose the directive on data protection in criminal matters into national law.
In July 2018, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Spain for failing to adopt the directive on the protection of personal data in the framework of the prevention and detection of criminal offences. This directive should have been adopted by member states before 6 May 2018, after a year of disputes, the European Commission asked the European Court of Justice to impose a sanction on Spain in July 2019.
The judgment given on February 25, 2021, has ruled in favor of the European commission and Spain will have to pay 15 million euros in addition to paying a daily amount of 89,000 euros if the non-compliance still persists.
The aforementioned directive introduces rules for the processing of personal data by law enforcement authorities in order to facilitate the exchange of information for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection and enforcement of criminal penalties. The measure ensures that case-related data such as victims, witnesses, suspects and the perpetrators themselves are adequately protected in the criminal investigation.
The purpose of the measure is to facilitate cooperation between Member States in order to combat crime and terrorism more effectively on European territory. These EU rules contribute to the full realisation of an area of freedom, security and justice.
Arguments of Spain before the prosecution
Spain did not deny that it had failed to comply with its obligations to adopt and communicate the measures transposing the Directive, but argued that due to the very exceptional institutional circumstances, the activities of the government and parliament had been delayed. Let us remember that there was a functioning government and elections just around the corner.
Result of the judgment
In this Thursday’s judgment, the CJEU dismisses Spain’s arguments and declares its failure to comply with its obligations. In fact, on the date of completion of the written procedure in Luxembourg on 6 May 2020, the Sanchez government had not yet adopted or communicated the measures transposing the directive.
European judges therefore consider the fine to be an appropriate means of ensuring that Spain puts an end to it, as soon as possible, to the breach of the rule and considers that the fine is a deterrent to the future recurrence of similar infringements affecting the full effectiveness of EU law.