Amendment 273· Data Act Article 35(5)
~Alternative
Text of the amendment
As tabled
Amending instructionagainst the Commission’s
16a. In Article 35, paragraph 5 is amended as follows:
Wordingagainst the Commission’s
5. The Commission may, by means of implementing acts, adopt common specifications based on open interoperability specifications covering all of the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 only where no harmonised standard or standards covering the relevant requirements are available, no standardisation work covering those requirements is ongoing, and the relevant European standardisation organisations have formally refused the request to develop harmonised standards. Before adopting common specifications, the Commission shall demonstrate, on the basis of a public technical and economic assessment, that they are strictly necessary, technically and economically feasible, and proportionate. Any common specifications adopted pursuant to this paragraph shall not go beyond the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 and shall not impose additional technical design, architectural, operational or commercial obligations."
Struck CommissionHighlighted amendment
Data Act Article 35 with this amendment
Amendment 273 applied to the Commission proposal, no other amendment
Unchanged: (1), (2), (3) and (4)
Open interoperability specifications and harmonised standards for the interoperability of data processing services shall:
achieve, where technically feasible, interoperability between different data processing services that cover the same service type;
enhance portability of digital assets between different data processing services that cover the same service type;
facilitate, where technically feasible, functional equivalence between different data processing services referred to in Article 30(1) that cover the same service type;
not have an adverse impact on the security and integrity of data processing services and data;
be designed in such a way so as to allow for technical advances and the inclusion of new functions and innovation in data processing services.
Open interoperability specifications and harmonised standards for the interoperability of data processing services shall adequately address:
the cloud interoperability aspects of transport interoperability, syntactic interoperability, semantic data interoperability, behavioural interoperability and policy interoperability;
the cloud data portability aspects of data syntactic portability, data semantic portability and data policy portability;
the cloud application aspects of application syntactic portability, application instruction portability, application metadata portability, application behaviour portability and application policy portability.
Open interoperability specifications shall comply with Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012.
After taking into account relevant international and European standards and self-regulatory initiatives, the Commission may, in accordance with Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012, request one or more European standardisation organisations to draft harmonised standards that satisfy the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article.
The Commission may, by means of implementing acts, adopt common specifications based on open interoperability specifications covering all of the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 only where no harmonised standard or standards covering the relevant requirements are available, no standardisation work covering those requirements is ongoing, and the relevant European standardisation organisations have formally refused the request to develop harmonised standards. Before adopting common specifications, the Commission shall demonstrate, on the basis of a public technical and economic assessment, that they are strictly necessary, technically and economically feasible, and proportionate. Any common specifications adopted pursuant to this paragraph shall not go beyond the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2 and shall not impose additional technical design, architectural, operational or commercial obligations."
~AmendedUnchanged: (6), (7), (8) and (9)
When preparing the draft implementing act referred to in paragraph 5 of this Article, the Commission shall take into account the views of the relevant competent authorities referred to in Article 37(5), point (h) and other relevant bodies or expert groups and shall duly consult all relevant stakeholders.
When a Member State considers that a common specification does not entirely satisfy the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2, it shall inform the Commission thereof by submitting a detailed explanation. The Commission shall assess that detailed explanation and may, if appropriate, amend the implementing act establishing the common specification in question.
For the purpose of Article 30(3), the Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, publish the references of harmonised standards and common specifications for the interoperability of data processing services in a central Union standards repository for the interoperability of data processing services.
The implementing acts referred to in this Article shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 46(2).
Justification
This amendment prevents the Data Act from becoming an outlier in EU law by allowing Commission-mandated common specifications without a prior standardisation process. In line with better law-making, proportionality and market-driven standardisation, common specifications must remain a last-resort tool, based on evidence and feasibility, not a shortcut for politically imposed technical solutions or new obligations beyond the Regulation’s essential requirements.
Target
Wording of the targeted provisionlaw in force, Commission proposal, latest Council text
Law in forceData Act, Article 35(5)
The Commission may, by means of implementing acts, adopt common specifications based on open interoperability specifications covering all of the essential requirements laid down in paragraphs 1 and 2.
No Council text amends Article 35(5).
Cite this amendment
Amendment 273 (Piotr Müller and others), European Parliament, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, amendments 125–328 to the draft opinion on COM(2025) 837 (IMCO-AM-790905, PE790.905, 16 July 2026), pp. 125–126
Link, short form and official text
Amendment 273 (Piotr Müller and others), European Parliament, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, amendments 125–328 to the draft opinion on COM(2025) 837 (IMCO-AM-790905, PE790.905, 16 July 2026), pp. 125–126
IMCO Amendment 273 (IMCO-AM-790905), p. 125