Significant concerns remain over the sharing of private medical data with major corporations, despite MEPs approving extra safeguards.
The European Parliament adopted its position on the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by 516 votes to 95 on Wednesday, December 13th with the new legislation designed to govern the easy flow of medical information for commercial and policy-making purposes.
The EHDS outlines the legal terms of engagement for the use of health data across the EU. It has been regularly castigated as forming the building block of a dystopian European Health Union as leading to private medical information being harvested by megacorporations.
In a rare example of the populist Right influencing the legislative process at an EU level, Italian Lega MEP Annalisa Tardino helped guarantee an opt-out clause for consumers on how their data is used, thanks to her role as co-rapporteur of the report being voted on by MEPs.
During Wednesday’s plenary debate, MEPs accused the EHDS of exemplifying the “totalitarian logic” of the EU. French RN MEP Mathilde Androuët said that the rulebook would only benefit American corporations such as Bill Gates’s Microsoft.
She was joined by Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer who warned that the EHDS was sacrificing patient privacy for profit as he tabled additional amendments to protect consumer rights. A German digital rights activist, Breyer has arguably been the loudest opponent of the EHDS, leading a campaign to restrict the access of corporations to personal medical data.
The Brussels-based think tank NBIC Ethics was among the detractors from the EHDS, despite the additional privacy guarantees, warning about the impact that legislation would have on sensitive issues such as fertility treatment. It also warned about potential abuses of European data by third-party countries in a statement to The European Conservative responding to the parliamentary vote.
Far from the final text, the EHDS will now undergo amendments in the trilogue stage of the EU legislative train after the Parliament confirmed its position with Wednesday’s vote.
The EU is still recovering from the PR wounds inflicted by its handling of the COVID crisis with accusations that its bureaucratic modus operandi is unable to adapt to fast-paced situations and is open to exploitation by the private sector.
