Honourable mention: Jan Philipp Albrecht & Team
Jan Philipp Albrecht is the EU politician thanks to whom we now have a real chance for data protection in Europe. As rapporteur for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, his work has been seminal. Through his and his team’s efforts, a harmonised approach to data protection in Europe is now within reach.
Strong data protection in Europe
Many of our goals have actually been implemented in the regulation – but unfortunately, many are still missing. The new data protection regulation is a good start. Now we must keep a careful eye on the way the EU member states will put the regulation into practice. There are many decisions that will be taken at this step, for example in the field of employee data protection. So things are still on edge.
Without Jan Philipp Albrecht, his assistant Ralf Bendrath and the whole team, we would not have the General Data Protection Regulation in the form it has today. Perhaps there would be no new regulation at all. Jan Philipp Albrecht has enduringly fought off manipulative interventions from lobbyists over four years. With patience and competence, he managed to even convince political opponents or at least negotiate acceptable compromises.
Hard work for freedom and fundamental rights
Jan Philipp Albrecht has lived up to his MEP’s mandate and worked in the interests of European citizens. He has shown hat engaging for freedom and fundamental rights is worth the effort. There is a documentary movie, “Democracy”, that impressively shows this work. To watch these people working is a real appetizer to join the political debate.
