A local Europe : The implementation process of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) through the lens of the phenomenon of Europeanization

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2016/679) can be described as a comprehensive regulation that was adopted by the European Union (EU) with the purpose of regulating the protection of personal data in all EU member states. The regulation will take effect on May 25th 2018 and will apply to all organisations that process the personal data of EU- citizens. This study will explore the implementation process of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) through the lens of the phenomenon of Europeanization. The context of the phenomenon for this study is that EU seeks to adapt the member states’ political and administrative institutions into a common judicial framework through the implementation of EU-law. However, this requires member states having the ability to adapt to the common framework. This study’s purpose is therefore to study a local municipality’s implementation process of the regulation to evaluate its ability adapting to EU- law. The study has been conducted through a case-study design where interviews have taken place with employed public officials who are in the process of planning the implementation process. Through the interviews that have been conducted and the documentation that has been available, material, informative, personal resources and preferences in the shape of objectives in the implementation process have been deducted through Lennart Lundquist’s model for analysis of an organisation’s capabilitites and priorities in the implementation process. In conclusion, resocurces have been extracted mainly to prepare for the implementation in the shape of educational measures and recruiting new employees with the intent of coordinating the process. Through local cooperation common resources have been extracted for judicial support and for the use of a common Data Protection Officer (DPO). It is difficult to estimate the municipality’s ability to adapt to EU- law due to the fact that the process is still in its initial stages, but since the municipality is still preparing to implement measures to increase and ensure safeguards of information, the municipality will not be able to reach the requirements as of May 25th 2018.