Portuguese data protection commission “too broke” to comply with GDPR

Portugal’s data protection commission says it doesn’t have funds to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Controversial new EU regulation came into effect on May 25.

The Portuguese Data Protection Commission is so cash-strapped it can’t even pay its salaries says its president Filipa Galvão who told Portuguese MPs that once GDPR came into effect the commission, which employs three people, would have to shut down as it wouldn’t be able fulfil its duties.

GPDR is designed to “give control to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.”

Carrying fines of up to €20 million for non-compliance, GDPR is meant to have prompted member states into passing new legislation. In Portugal’s case, the issue hasn’t yet been debated in Parliament.

Opposition MPs within Portugal’s centre-right CDS party are to receive the national press association which has criticised the GDPR as “putting freedom at risk.”

Due to it being a regulation and not a directive, national governments are not required to pass any enabling legislation while business leaders are already saying the regulation is unenforceable.