Euro Commission Data Protection held up by France

A new report says the European Commission's Data Protection Directive has met many of its objectives, including removing most legal obstacles to the free movement of data that existed as a result of differences in various countries' data protection legislation, according to a new report on the directive's effectiveness. But long delays in getting the directive implemented--and the fact that eight years after it was created, France has yet to bring its data protection laws in line with it--"have prevented Europe's economy from getting the full benefit of the Directive," says the report.