Liberalisation in retreat?

VIVIANE REDING – Part III

Viviane Reding (pictured) is staying on for a third term as a commissioner, with a promotion to first vice-president, and a portfolio covering a strange combination of policies ranging from justice and fundamental rights to citizenship.
Among her responsibilities will be data protection, which has been split out of the justice, liberty and security portfolio previously held by one commissioner (initially Franco Frattini, and subsequently Jacques Barrot). This is Barroso's attempt to counterbalance the focus on security in the legislation agreed over the last ten years, which has been driven by fears of terrorism and illegal immigration. Barroso wants to show that the European Commission is paying due attention to protecting civil liberties and defending fundamental rights.
Reding is expected to launch a revision of the EU's rules on data protection, which date back to 1995, to update them for the digital world where social networks and internet search engines collect and store huge amounts of private information about users. Even under existing data protection provision, Reding will ensure screening of all new legislative proposals – such as a measure to allow electronic bank-transfer data to be shared with the US – so that data protection considerations are respected.
She is also expected to be active on consumer contracts and contract law, which have been moved from the health and consumers department to the justice, liberty and security department. She is expected to push for common principles in contract law. Reding is also likely to use anti-discrimination provisions under the Lisbon treaty to tackle market segmentation – where businesses offer different prices for the same products or services in different member states, notably airline and rail tickets and electronic consumer goods.
Reding made herself unpopular with mobile- phone operators with a regulation that cut the prices of making or receiving calls when abroad. This, though, made her popular with Barroso, because it was the perfect example of what “Europe for the citizens” could achieve. If Reding gets the same encouragement from Barroso and a free rein from the rest of the Commission, she will make enemies among many more businesses over the next five years.