PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA IN THE EUROPEAN UNION-TURKEY RELATIONS: EFFECT OF VISA LIBERALISATION DIALOGUE

Abstract

The European Union is rather successful at making regulations and law whose influence go beyond the European territory, as these acts are widely considered as common standards. One of them is about personal data protection. The European Union accepted a new regulation on the protection of personal data which was put in practice in May 2018, after a long period of discussions. The regulation was accepted for the replacement of laws about data protection in member and candidate states. As a European Union candidate country, Turkey started a visa liberation dialogue with the European Union in 2013. Personal data protection issue has been one of the most crucial subjects of the visa liberation process and considered as an important requirement which must be fulfilled by Turkey. In this respect, the study will elaborate the European Union’s regulation on new personal data protection under the case of Turkey’s visa liberalisation dialogue. In the first chapter, the historical development of personal data protection, the European Union data protection regulation and current situation will be analysed. In the second chapter, the study will elaborate the issue of data protection under the case of visa liberation dialogue between Turkey and the European Union. In the last chapter, aiming to reveal the differences between General Data Protection Regulation and Turkish data protection legislation, Turkey’s cohesion to the European Union’s data protection regulation within the frame of visa liberation dialogue will be dealt. In this context, differentiating from present studies and researches in the literature, this study asserts that visa liberalisation dialogue catalyses Turkey’s compliance with the European Union’s data protection standards.