European Union has imposed new regulations on the protection of data. Progress is being made on implementing the new rules. Jean-Claud Juncker, the President of the European Commission, wants the regulation and directives completed within the six months since the Commission became active. So, justice ministers gathered together in Luxemburg on Friday for this purpose.

Viviane Redding, the EU justice commissioner, had proposed legislation in the beginning of 2012. This proposition was accepted by the Parliament in April. So, that leaves all the ministers to get together and start a trilogue – the discussion between member states, EC and Parliament. Marin Reicherts, EU Commissioner, pointed out that a first agreement should be reached by December because at the beginning of the month, Council will be held. Following this, the trilogies will start in January. This means that there is enough time to prepare legislation by the deadline given by Juncker. Yet, there is a lot to discuss.

The ministers have gone beyond rules of data protection to talk about the “right to be forgotten”. This was a ruling by the European top court that companies, such as Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), should remove that information from their search results which people do not want online. The court and European Union are separate entities. However, the new rulings cover the same area as the judgment, and so, this discussion is taking place.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is on a tour in Europe. The tour will be two-month long and includes the advisory panel of eight members that includes José-Luis Piñar, a former data protection chief in Spain and Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. The purpose of the tour is to determine that how they can implement the new judgment.

Andrea Orlando, Justice Minister of Italy who is also chairing all meetings, believes that it isn’t the company’s place to make the decision. She said that the issue needs to be resolved using the right tools, and so, an agreement is reached that a public jurisdiction is needed to help resolve the problem. Ms. Reicherts is in agreement with Andrea Orlando. She said that the meetings have lead to a very interesting discussion. It is necessary that the European Commission caters to all of the points that were put forward in the court during the ruling. In order to do that, Ms. Reicherts believes, that a proper system is required.

BEUC, which is a consumer lobbying organization, said that the ministers are taking too long to pass the new law. John Phelan, of BEUC, said that the lawmakers have already been at it for nearly three years, so they can’t possibly need any more time. He also said that supposing a company’s building is located in Silicon Valley and if it is legally a Luxemburg-based company, yet it acquires and processes data of customers throughout 28 countries in Europe, then the basic privacy rights of the people of Europe will fall prey to this legal uncertainty.

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