The compromises take place not only between the political groups, but with the commission in the way that directives are drafted, and then with the 15 national governments meeting in council.
Backers of cloud computing technology are hoping the European Commission will loosen the rules applying to international data transfers during the review of its data protection directive, which was drafted in 1995, in the early days of the Internet.
Changes already under way will reshape Europe's financial markets faster than a new directive could be drafted and adopted.
In Europe a new privacy directive, now being drafted and likely to come into effect in 2016, will introduce extremely strict (some say stifling) rules on data collection that will apply across the European Union.
Two years seem like a long time, but as those who work in financial services know, EU directives take years to be drafted, consulted, transposed and implemented nationally in EU member states.
When the Cookie Directive, officially known as the EU e-Privacy Directive, was first drafted two years ago, tablets hadn't been adopted in their millions, and smartphones had nothing like their present-day ubiquity.
The Directive also requires that T&Cs be drafted in "plain and intelligible language" — to ensure consumers are informed in a clear and understandable manner about their rights.
However, only respondents aged 18 years or older are included in the analysis, because an advance directive on euthanasia can only be drafted by people older than 18.
The timetable will still be drafted in accordance with Directive 2001/14/EC.
If Europe's new capital-adequacy directive is to be law in all EU countries by 2004, it must be drafted before that, in October this year.
