Privacy and data protection rules of the European Union place a heavy compliance burden on European companies and all foreign companies handling or possessing EU data and the latest proposal under consideration by the European Parliament for a uniform rule is no exception. As reported by L&E Global, the worldwide alliance of premier boutique employment law firms of which Jackson Lewis LLP is a founding member, a proposal to amend and replace the 1995 Data Protection Directive with the most stringent data protection laws in the world, which would require reporting of any data privacy breach to national authorities, received a favorable vote from the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Commission. However, the drive for a uniform data privacy rule has received pushback from both business and government alike. They are concerned about the scope of the proposal, which are expected to be effective in 2016. EU justice ministers meeting in Luxembourg on June 6 agreed to dilute proposal in response. According to Reuters, lawmakers have offered approximately 4,000 amendments to the proposal and agreed to a "risk-based" approach for reporting data breaches. In its present form, the proposal requires data breaches to be reported within 24 hours and notification be given to government entities as well as affected individuals. The final rule, in any form, will impact global business and worldwide company use of data. Businesses should continue to monitor developments. Additional information about the proposal can be found here.