For a second consecutive year at the Faculty of Law and History, a round table was held under the title “Risks and Challenges to the Protection of Personal Data in the EU and Third Countries”. The event was organized within the framework of the project No. 101047808 entitled “European Data Protection: post-pandemic effects and new dimensions” (EDP – PPEND), which is implemented with the financial support of the Erasmus+ Programme 2021 – 2027, action under the Jean Monnet Module initiative in the field of higher education.
Prof. Nikolay Marin, Ph.D., welcomed the participants. – Rector of the SWU “Neofit Rilski” – Blagoevgrad, Prof. Petrana Stoykova, Ph.D. – Deputy Rector for Research and Doctoral Development and Prof. Gabriela Belova, Ph.D. – Dean of the Faculty of Law and History.
The actual work of the round table started with a presentation of the implementation of the two modules of the project by the project manager Prof. Nikolay Marin, Ph.D. The first part of its implementation consists of the introduction in the curricula of the compulsory elective course “Protection of personal data in the EU and third countries” with a 60-hour course (45 hours of lectures and 15 hours of practice). It will continue to be taught in the academic year 2023/2024. It is popular among students in the Law, National Security, International Relations, and Finance programs, and it is planned to be included in other programs such as Public Administration, Public Relations, and History.
The second part of the implementation of the project consists of the implementation of student internships. For this purpose, the SWU “Neofit Rilski” has concluded agreements with the Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) and the Municipality of Blagoevgrad. In 2024, the CPDP will allow the students to complete a two-week internship.
The scientific forum continued with the presentation of papers by students, PhD students, and lecturers, which provoked interesting discussions on the extremely important topic. The moderator was Chief Ass. Yordanka Noneva-Zlatkova, Ph. D.
Augustin Yanchev, Ph.D. an expert at the Commission for the Protection of Personal Data, revealed the significance of the Act on Artificial Intelligence and its relationship with the protection of personal data, and Chief Assistant Mariya Paskaleva, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Economics classified personal data as an asset and explained their economic value in the digital economy.
The students of Law: Teodora Danova-Chipova, Petya Khadzhieva, Nikolay Zlatkov, Victor-Kristian Vassilev, and Biser Sharlachki presented their point of view. A lively discussion was sparked by the topics they raised about the fines imposed for non-compliance with the GDPR on the giant companies Amazon and WhatsApp, the processing of personal data of children, athletes and the importance of being informed about the rights that the GDPR provides us.