Presidential veto on amendments of the Personal Data Protection Act

The Charter was mentioned in the context of a report by MP Tsvetan Tsvetanov concerning a presidential veto on amendments of the Personal Data Protection Act (Закон за защита на личните данни). More specifically the amendments were designed to reach a balance between two non-absolute fundamental rights, namely data protection rights and freedom of expression. In case of a conflict between these two rights, according to the MP, the extreme prioritising of any of these rights to the detriment of the other risks going against the spirit of the Charter . The MP further noted that the freedom of speech and the protection of personal data are not absolute rights and balance should be sought between the two in democratic societies to limit the harm from possible unlawful behavior and not create problematic precedents. According to him, the disputed provisions offer criteria to maintain such balance in accordance with ECHR, ECJ and the national Constitutional Court case law. After the MP’s and other interventions, the parliamentary Internal Security and Public Order Committee (Комисия по вътрешна сигурност и обществен ред) proposed rejecting the presidential veto and confirming the impugned provisions.