Students from the Master in Space, Communication and Media Law had the exciting opportunity to join a national data protection conference and present research on GDPR to an audience including Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Justice Minister Félix Braz.
The five students – Angelica Fernandez, Gaëlle Gammaitoni, Tatiana Isnard, Oriane Kaesmann and Crina Negoita – were chosen to present at the conference organised by the Luxembourg national data protection commission (CNPD) based on their good academic results as well as being in the process of completing internships in the field of data protection.
“Initially I felt overwhelmed,” said Crina of the proposal to join the event, “but I realised that I was being given the unique opportunity to express my thoughts in front of such a high-level audience,” which also included the EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova.
“We met twice as a group,” explained Tatiana, “once at the CNPD’s premises and then for a rehearsal the morning of the conference.” Clémentine Boulanger, Uni.lu PhD graduate and lawyer at the CNPD, as well as Andra Giurgiu, research associate at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), helped prepare the students. “Clémentine and Andra did everything to give us confidence, so there was no reason to be stressed,” said Gaëlle about overcoming the nervousness of participating in the “Four Decades of Data Protection” conference.
Speaking on the topic of “Living data protection”, the students explored the impact of the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which entered into application on 25 May, drawing on their experiences as interns at the CNPD, POST Luxembourg and a private space company. “Everyone had an interesting point to raise,” commented Oriane. “The point of view of students can be taken into account and prove enlightening” for projects generating change in Europe.
“It was a very exciting opportunity speaking to all of the experts in the room,” concluded Angelica. “Opportunities like this help you improve. I will feel more confident approaching a distinguished audience like this one the next time.”
Prof. Mark Cole, Course Director of the Master programme, also participated in the conference, moderating a panel on “The culture of monitoring and the role of the supervisory authorities”. He was joined at the conference by University of Luxembourg Honorary Prof. Jean-Louis Schiltz who later in the day presented on « The issues of SMEs with a geopolitical aspect ».
Find out more about the Master in Space, Communication and Media Law (LL.M.) online.
Addition photos and details from the conference talks are available on the CNPD’s website.