In Podgorica, on April 11, 2025, an international conference on personal data protection, where the focus will be on the topic of Montenegro - EU accession vs GDPR and what GDPR means for public law entities and companies.
A prerequisite for Montenegro's accession to the EU is full compliance of national data protection legislation with the GDPR. The right to the protection of personal data is one of the fundamental human rights, and the EU will insist on the highest standards of human rights on Montenegro's path to accession.
What does Montenegro need to do to pass this test and what does harmonization with the EU acquis mean for citizens, administration, institutions and private companies?
The new Personal Data Protection Law should guarantee citizens greater legal protection, and for the administration, institutions and private companies to prescribe more obligations and responsibilities, as well as significantly higher fines for cases of non-compliance. Fines in the EU range up to 20.000.000 euros or 4% of annual revenue at the level of a group of companies.
All legal entities - with a large number of employees or that process a large amount of personal data, have online sales, process health data, children's data, social status, data from criminal records, financial data, develop software for processing personal data and for connecting data processing systems - have strict legal responsibilities and the Conference will be a unique opportunity to become familiar with all the aspects that inevitably await them in a timely manner. Earlier adaptation, in addition to the inevitable adaptation to legal provisions, also means avoiding unwanted omissions in risky obligations, but also a more rational financial approach.
The conference will provide real information from representatives of the European Commission, the European Data Protection Board, the supervisory authorities of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the city of Hamburg, international companies and associations (Deutsche Telekom Group and CERN), leading international law firms and experts in the region.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was adopted in 2018 and applies automatically in all member states from 25.05.2020 May XNUMX. It represents the "gold" standard for personal data protection on an international scale.
All successful economies in the world that are not in the EU have signed agreements with it that guarantee a level of data protection equivalent to that in the EU. These agreements are the result of many years of cooperation, negotiations and assessment by the EU Commission and are a necessary condition for successful trade with the EU.
The implementation of the GDPR in the candidate countries represents greater security in economic exchange with the EU, as today, efficient data management and exchange are an inseparable part of successful economies. On the other hand, the GDPR also guarantees a high level of respect for citizens' rights when processing personal data.
All information and registration for direct participation is available at: www.jpm.law/events
( SNAP MONTENEGRO )
