National and Public Security within and beyond the Police Directive

During the drafting of Directive (EU) 2016/680 the major European data protection supervisory bodies raised their concerns as regards the scope of the directive, and in particular the purpose of safeguarding public security within. The directive does not further define the notion of public security, while explicitly juxtaposing the concept vis-a-vis national security, as the latter is excluded from the scope of application of EU legislation. Several months after the official deadline for the national transposition of the directive, this question has not been given any more thought. This chapter will thus seek to clarify the scope of the directive and the meaning of public security within, first through its contraposition with the equally nebulous concept of national security, and then through the definition of competent authorities, as formulated in the text of the directive and transposed into national law.